To be on Gilroy
’s Stanford Cardinal softball team, a girl’s got to be able to
crack the books as well as the bat. It stands to reason. When you
name your team after one of the world’s top scholastic institutions
with the intent of living up to its image, you’re setting your
standards pretty high. Put toget
her by GPA
&
amp; Sports Inc., a not-for profit educational charity,
Gilroy
’s Stanford Cardinal is a youth softball team comprised of
players from Gilroy, Hollister and Morgan Hill. The team isn’t just
preparing its athletes for life on the field, say its coaches, it’s
preparing them for their upcoming years in the classroom.
To be on Gilroy’s Stanford Cardinal softball team, a girl’s got to be able to crack the books as well as the bat. It stands to reason. When you name your team after one of the world’s top scholastic institutions with the intent of living up to its image, you’re setting your standards pretty high.
Put together by GPA & Sports Inc., a not-for profit educational charity, Gilroy’s Stanford Cardinal is a youth softball team comprised of players from Gilroy, Hollister and Morgan Hill. The team isn’t just preparing its athletes for life on the field, say its coaches, it’s preparing them for their upcoming years in the classroom.
So far, so good.
Not only are the young women on the team doing better in school since the team’s emphasis shifted from a softball-first focus to a classroom-first focus, say the team’s instructors, they’re honing their softball skills in preparation to play at the high-school level.
Players and coaches from Gilroy’s Stanford Cardinal recently attended a skills camp put on by Stanford – the collegiate version – in Palo Alto which featured instruction from three of the Cardinal players were named to the last Team USA softball squad. Stanford head coach John Rittman, who was an assistant coach on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team that brought home the gold also took part in the camp.
“It was a great experience for the girls,” said Cardinal coach Joe Hernandez of the Stanford camp experience. “It was a phenomenal time. We figure, it’s Stanford University, it says ‘class,’ it says ‘education,’ so that’s kind of what we model this team after.”
Last Sunday’s practice consisted of two hours of speed and strength training followed by two hours of softball practice with coaching by Kristine Miles and Destinee Powers, both standouts on the Gavilan softball team. After the grueling workout, the girls sat down and talked about personal and team goals.
It wasn’t just an in-one-ear, out-the-other kind of talk. Hernandez passed out composition books and pens to each of his players and asked them to map out three goals they wanted to achieve, both personal as well as with the team.
“Always give 110 percent, both on the field and in the classroom.” “Work on my speed.” “Work on my hitting.” “Work on my fielding.”
“Work on my algebra.”
Just a taste of the goals the girls of the 14-and-under team came up with.
“Our whole theme is that the scholastics come first,” Hernandez said. “The girls’ grades are coming up. Girls who have brought their grade point averages up to a 3.0 are now being asked to get it up to a 3.5 or a 4.0. So, a 3.0 isn’t always good enough – we want the girls to do as good as they possibly can in school.”
