Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from the entire DePauw Softball Program to you and your family. The team is very excited to start heading home or to friends for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving. When we come back to campus we will have a few classes and then right into finals. The Fall Semester of 2009 is coming to an end and my guage on the team is that they are excited.

Many of the members of the team are ironing out their spring semester schedules and putting the final touches on their winter break plans.

If you are traveling please travel safe. Enjoy and be thankful. I know everyone at DePauw is thankful for what we have and know we are truly blessed to have a family like we do.

Happy Thanksgiving.
Sincerely,

DePauw Softball 2009-10

Alumni Good News

Fans and Alumni,

Great news from Jessica Krueger Class of 2007. Jessica back in her home city of  Chicago and just recieved a position with Teach for America in Chicago.

Congratulations Jessica. That is awesome and we are so proud of you.

I want to invite all Alumni and friends to email me with updates I love hearing from you all and miss you very much. The team is doing great and I can say for certain you all left big shoes to fill.

Good luck Krueggs!

Why Division III?

One of the toughest questions for high school athletes is...where do I go from here? When I was asking myself this question four years ago, I had to sit down and truly evaluate what I wanted from my college experience. After the years of hard work I had put into my softball career, I knew it was imperative that I find a school with an outstanding softball program; one that would challenge my skills and provide the competition I had thrived on for so many years. I also realized that life doesn't end at athletics. I knew I needed a school where I could become involved in a multitude of extra-curricular activities, develop as a leader, have a positive impact on my community, and challenge myself in the classroom. Fortunately, I found all this and much more at the Division III level, specifically at DePauw.

I don't play for thousands of adoring fans or because I am being paid to; I play simply because I love this game. Division III athletics show students what it really means to have a passion for what you do, and to work hard without the expectation of a reward at the end of the day. I leave you with this thought: "We don't sign autographs. But we do sign graduate school applications, MCAT exams, and student body petitions.We don't lift weights with a future Olympic wrestler; we lift with a future doctor. We don't run with a future Wimbledon champion; we run with a future CEO." Regardless of how many people come to our games or follow our blog, we run and lift just the same. We do this because we have pride in ourselves, pride in our school, and a deep, undying love for the game.

Racing in the Rain

Last week I had a great opportunity to read a book titled, The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. I would love to encourage you to read this book as soon as possible. If you are training or just living life and want to become a champion at what you do this book say's it all.

As for the team and the softball program everything is going smooth. The team is in the "off" season. Which means to them that they are finding time on their own to lift three times a week, and do agility/plyo training. Yes, they are also finding time to hit, throw and workout together. Since we have the beautiful indoor tennis and track center the weather doesn't get in the way. Yes, the team is also working on on school and life. My favorite part of this season is seeing who can get organized and keep school, life and softball in balance.

As for the office we are working hard on getting the equipment and gear ordered for the spring, arrange travel plans, and recruit for next year. Seniors right now should be applying to DePauw so we can be sure to have a championship recruiting class for 2010.

Check out the book, you will be happy you did.
Sincerely,
Coach Skrenta

Recruiting Guide by NFCA

Dear Tiger Recruits and High School Softball players,

Have you visited www.nfca.org yet? If not it is a must. This is the organization that links all, I mean the entire softball community together; College Coaches, High School Coaches, Travel Ball Coaches, Players, Former players, Pro Players, Private Instructors and anyone else in the softball community together.

They have a lot of great resources but this one http://ftp.nfca.org/forms/2008recruitguide.pdf is a must. Go, print out the recruiting guide and keep it in your folder of recruiting information.

Thanks NFCA for everything you do for the game of fastpitch softball.
Sincerely,
Coach Skrenta

Going to Florida

Tigers and Fans,

It is official we are going to Florida this spring to play in the NTC Spring Tournament. The tournament's web page is http://www.ntcsoftball.com/csschedule.html. The schedule isn't up yet but we will be traveling on Monday, March 22nd from Nashville, TN via Southwest to Orlando and plan on playing three doubleheaders while we are there. When we arrive we will be staying at the Summer Bay Resorts. Looks fancy! The team will have a chance to stay in 3, 2 bedroom condos. The resort has 5 pools, 4 hot tubs, fitness center and close to theme parks. We will be there until Saturday, March 27th when we fly home via Southwest to Indianapolis.

The team will be getting more details when they arrive on campus from Fall Break. It looks like the plans for the spring are really shapping up.

Thanks for reading along.
Sincerely,
Bonnie

Fall Break

Dear Tiger Fans,

Fall break is almost here. On Friday the campus will be quiet again for one week. Everyone goes on vacation, home, and some are doing special projects.

After having individual meetings with just about everyone...4 left and by tomorrow afternoon all meetings will be complete. It sounds like the fall was a success, the goals for the winter are set, and the team is on track for the spring. We had much talk of being a team that is and offensive threat and staying the course with the defense we love and continue to use as our foundation for strong play. I have asked many members of team to think of a "theme" that can be used to thread the season together. It will be fun to see the ideas that come after a week of relaxing and getting caught up at home.

While doing my own research on a good theme I came across a manager who talked about an analogy of a jig-saw puzzle. It hit me. We can right now describe our team as a 250 piece jig-saw puzzle. We have all the pieces and this fall we found the corner pieces and put together the boarder of the puzzle. This winter the team will be sorting though the pieces (lifting, conditioning, hitting, pitching and playing on their own time) so we are ready in the winter to put it all together. It is my hopes that everyone is visualizing the picture they would like to see because right now we are in the creation phase. (I have a good idea of the picture, I peaked at the box.)

Thank you all for your support and I really do hope you find this blog to be helpful when trying to learning more about the DePauw University Softball Program.

Sincerely,
Have a great break!
Coach Skrenta