Jefferson Softball strikes out
The Jefferson Softball team has been a welcoming community for many years, however a lack of interest poses trouble for the team.
March 25, 2022
9.69 million people in the U.S. play softball. Unfortunately, the numbers haven’t been as high for Jefferson. Throughout the past couple of weeks, the Jefferson Softball team sent emails, communicated reminders through morning announcements and posted announcements on ion for softball recruitment.
Despite these extraordinary efforts, the team still needs more players.
“Becoming a bigger team would be great. If it stays small, we’ll work through the season. Either way, we’ll figure out a way to do it.” freshman varsity softball player Mahima Athipatla said.
Historically, the softball team has always had issues recruiting girls.
“Usually we’re lower on numbers and I think a huge part is girls aren’t really encouraged to play sports at [Jefferson],” Riley Cooper, junior co-captain of the Jefferson Softball team said.
Although it may not be the most popular sport, softball can be a great way to meet people.
“The players work hard, everyone is nice to each other. Overall, it’s a really positive experience.” Cooper said.
With so many sports communities at Jefferson, there are many options for Jefferson students to pick one.
“A lot of the time when they do want to play sports they go for ones with larger amounts of girls.” Cooper said.
That can exclude the smaller amount of girls needed in some of the smaller sports. Softball is also very intricate, with many rules. For example, always pitch underhanded, seven innings per game, four balls is a walk, etc.
“On top of that, all the special rules become a deterrent for a lot of kids to actually want to learn, but I think that’s what makes it fun because you’re always learning something new,” captain Michelle Boisvert said.
However, not all hope is lost for the Jefferson Softball team. The plan is to keep recruiting dedicated players throughout the rest of the school year.
“We’ve gained people from recruiting through word of mouth,” Athipatla said. “For now, the plan is basically continuing to announce our need for more players through morning announcements and ion.”
“Another part is that people think it’s intimidating, because people think ‘I’m not good enough to play this sport.” Cooper said.
Everyone should feel welcome to join the softball team, but they have to put in the effort towards learning something new, and get past their initial fear of trying new things.
“It’s also about the attitude and if you just are willing to learn how to play the sport then you should definitely just join” Boisvert said.
