Nationals was such a great experience for me. It was a lot of fun and I think some friendships were even made a little stronger throughout the week. Our team is so awesome in the manner that everyone can get along so well. It’s been great to be able to play with such a talented and friendly group of girls. Within this entry, I am just going to go day by day and talk about nationals.

Day 1
(Tuesday, May 18)

First of all, some of the girls stayed up all night just to make sure we would make it to school for our 4:00 AM departure. It wasn’t too hard but afterwards, I was really tired. Erica Bates almost missed the bus. She said she woke up at 3:45 I think. Erica and I were really nervous about the airplane.

We finally got to National airport and got everything checked in. The first airplane wasn’t that bad. We had to switch planes in Minneapolis however, with only 15 minutes in between arriving and departing. We literally had to run across the airport just to make it to our next plane. They were even calling all of our names on the intercom. Luckily, we made it. This airplane was small too, and there were only about four other people on the plane besides the girls on the team.

There was definitely a weather change when we arrived at Fort Dodge, Iowa. It was a lot cooler but also very humid at times. We thought that Jess Cecil lost her luggage, but thankfully it showed up about 15 minutes after everyone else’s. We left the airport in three Explorers, which seemed kind of small for our team, but we made it work.

We arrived at the Budget Hotel, which everyone was a little scared of at first. The inside of the rooms changed our perspectives though. Everyone got in their rooms and pretty much slept for a few hours. Then we had some girls come into our room and play cards. I thought I broke my finger. Jamie Buckler gets a little aggressive with the card games and she gets mad when we say stuff to her but we are only playing. Our favorite thing was, “AWWWW, MY JACKS!” After that everyone was ready to go to bed!

DAY 2
(Wednesday, June 19)

Everyone just wanted to sleep in, and we did a little, but woke up to Michelle Ruble (CSM Athletic Director) banging on our door to get up. We had to get ready to go to practice at 1:00 PM. We went and it was probably the worst practice we had all season long. I think everyone must have been a little jittery, but I know that other teams were looking at us and wondering how we made it there. I thought that was okay though, because people were just going to think we weren’t very good and then we would play them and it would be a different story. Practice ended and we went back to the hotel. We laid around and played cards for a couple of hours, and then everyone got into the shower to get ready for the banquet.

The banquet was fun. The speaker was crazy and half of the things he said were unbelievable. When he started talking about himself and his wives' sex life, the team could hardly believe it. Anyhow, he finished and we ate dinner. It was good and we were so hungry we had our plates over flowing with food.

Finally we left again and went back to the hotel. I think this is when we became addicted to pull-offs, or maybe it was just me. They had these pull-offs (lottery tickets) for sale in the hotel and we kept buying them. It was like I couldn’t walk by it without buying one. I didn’t really lose any money though!

A few of us decided to go swimming. Actually Jamea Waltersdorff and I decided to swim laps and it was a workout! We were tired so we just took showers and went to sleep.

DAY 3
(Thursday, June 20)

We spent the entire day at the field. We got there at 8:45 AM for opening ceremonies. We all felt a little funny because we looked like the "little" team. Everything was okay though. We opened up against Wallace State from Alabama, the number three ranked team in the country. They were good but we were beating them in the fourth inning by two runs. We ended up losing to them by a run in the bottom of the seventh. It was a really good game though. After that we had a two game break.

Finally we were playing again. We played Meridian, Mississippi and we beat them by one. It was a close one though. Erica Bates was making everyone laugh, especially me. I was up to bat, and all I could hear was her saying, “HIT WHAT YOU WANT,” in the funny voice that we had been talking in all day. It was crazy. Anyhow, everyone was really excited about the win and Tommy Morrison (Head Softball Coach) took us out to eat steak. It was the best steak any of us had ever eaten. Then, we did the same thing, we went swimming, got pull offs, played cards, and went to sleep.

DAY 4
(Friday, June 21)

This day was a little more intense. We played Cuyahoga, Ohio early in the day. We started the game but had to stop in the fifth inning due to rain. The rain delay was a really long time. We went back to the hotel and got something to eat. A couple of us went to the community college and checked our grades.

Then there was a tornado warning. The skies looked really scary. Tommy then had to go to a coaches meeting to decide on what was going to happen. At that point, there was a chance that we would be going home, without finishing that last game. Everyone was really upset. Also, to top it off, Johnny Creaturo (Assistant Softball Coach) had to go home so he wouldn’t be there if and when we played again. That was pretty upsetting. Finally Tommy got back and told us we were going to start playing in an hour. The tornado had touched down 14 miles from where we were playing, so it was all kind of scary.

Anyhow, we ended up losing in the bottom of the seventh. It was a really hard loss because we were tied and then we were up by one and then we were tied again and then they scored to win. Everyone was pretty upset and it's always disappointing when the end of a season comes. Looking back, I am glad we got to end it in the National Tournament.

After that, we went out to dinner and then Bill Hitte (Assistant Softball Coach) took us to Walmart. He told me not to steal anything, and I couldn’t believe he would say that. Anyways, Erica Bates and I went in and I still had my metal cleats on. I almost fell down like five times and I had to hold on to Erica. Everyone was looking at us like we were weird. It kept storming that night and we got to talk to a couple of girls from the Delaware Tech team. Then we just played cards and went to sleep. Erica got addicted to ERS, the card game we had been playing.

DAY 5
(Saturday, June 22)

We woke up and packed all of our stuff. Then we went out to breakfast and stopped by the airport to drop off some stuff. After that we went to see some of the championship game, but we only got to see the first inning before we had to leave.

I forgot to mention that Cheyann Gilroy, the poor little buger, got in to pinch run and she slid and had the worst scrape I have ever seen. She could hardly even walk!

After that we went to the airport and left. This time, the small plane was absolutely horrible! It was really bumpy and Chey was screaming every time there was a bump and Erica was about to throw up and I thought I was about to start crying. The good part, we finally made it to Minneapolis. We didn’t even have to run to the other plane this time.

We made it home and good old Rick Coffin (Athletic and Facility Manager) was there to pick us up. That was the end of our wonderful trip.

I just wanted to give a special thanks to Trainer Tim (Murphy) for supporting us and taking care of us, even in Iowa.