TRANSITION FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGE IS MAJOR STEP!

By Karlee Adams

(1^st in a series of bi-weekly articles chronicling the 2004 CSM softball season) 

  (Karlee Adams is the starting catcher on the CSM softball team, and last year became the first player in CSM history to play every position during the course of the season)

  Many people don’t believe the transition from high school sports to college sports is a big deal, especially when it is “just” a junior college.  Well it is a huge transition!  I play volleyball and softball for CSM and it has been nothing like high school.  The competition becomes a lot stronger for one.  There are definitely some weak teams in the conference but there are also some teams that are ten times better than any team you will play in high school.  It is much more time consuming.  Most sports practice every day for two to three hours.  You play a lot more games in college,  and you have a lot more tournaments where you stay for the weekend. 

College sports have been a great experience for me because it’s not only a time to make yourself a better player, but you meet so many new people.  If you went to high school around here, you play with a lot of people that you would never imagine playing with and it ends up being a lot of fun. 

Softball season just started and we have been practicing in the gym.  It should be a good year this year and we have a lot of new players.  Our season starts in just a couple of weeks.  That was a big difference from high school as well.  You’re still playing when it is freezing outside!  The point of this was to show that just because CSM is a junior college, their sports are still very competitive and a big change from high school.  I don’t think that a lot of people realize that.