Where did the month of June go?

Wow, what a summer so far!! June has flown by and there is no slowing down in July. I have spent the last month virtually living out of a suitcase. Between recruiting and camps I have traveled from Northern Virginia to Richmond, VA to Las Vegas to NJ, to PA and am headed back to PA tomorrow for the weekend. After the 4th we are holding two weeks of camp right here at George Mason.

Coaching is time consuming but I cant think of a better way to spend my time than traveling, meeting new people and watching a lot of great softball. I also love working camps all around the country and learning more about the game from other great players and coaches. I had the pleasure of meeting and working camp with Stacy Nelson, former Florida Gator and now a member of the National team. Great pitcher and great with the kids.

Gotta go! Getting ready to hit the road again tonight!!

Some pictures from last weeks alumni-athlete golf outing!

Let's see..it's been a while since I posted. I have been taking it easy the last week or so. We start recruiting this weekend and camps are fast approaching so the summer will get real busy next week. I've been doing a variety of things, I watched just about every regional and WCWS softball game. I was hoping an East Coast team would finally win but congrats to the PAC-10...that is truly where the best softball is played year in and year out. I spent sometime on the boat which is by far one of my favorite places to be. Spent time with the family and friends that I neglect during the season.

We are talking now about our fall practice and game schedule and what we want to accomplish with our preseason. We have got to get better defensively. That will be a focus for sure.

Three Mason Alums coaching in the District Finals tonight. Linda Young, Corey Stokes and Lesley Hassen coach Fairfax HS who is taking on Centreville for the District title tonight!

Twitter

Ok, so I guess the new thing these days is to twitter. So for any of you out there that do this check out Mason Softball updates as well as what I am up to from time to time at www.twitter.com/masonsoftball.

The Future

It's crazy to think that the season is over already. It flies by every year but this one is a little different. I want to fast forward the summer and get back on the field tomorrow. We have a great core group of young players that really progressed throughout the year and although we struggled to win games this year, they are eager to learn, working hard and know that they can win at this level.

Congratulations are in order for a handful of players. The CAA awards were announced today and we had 4 players recognized. Becky Anderson was named 1st team all-CAA as a pitcher/designated player and Miranda Cranford was named 2nd team in the same position. Morgan Davis and Alyssa See were both named to the CAA All-Rookie team!

Mason Softball Earns Academic Recognition

The Mason Softball team was included in the 767 teams publicly recognized this year for high achievement that represent 11.9 percent of the approximately 6,484 Division I teams. The list includes 448 women's teams and 319 men's or mixed squads.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport.

Great job in the classroom ladies!!!!

The sun is shining today and hopefully there will be no more rain for the rest of the season! There are a couple of exciting events coming up the next two weekends. We have a home series agains UNCW this weekend. Following the game on Sunday we are doing a free clinic for Girl Scouts in the area! We usually do this once a year and it's a lot of fun! Saturday, April 25 we host Delaware and all of our softball Alumni. I can't wait to catch up with everyone, it's been too long! Sunday, April 26 we will honor our two seniors at our last home game of the year. 4 years goes by so fast!

Weekend Recap

Well the results in the W/L column were not what we wanted but we progressed throughout the weekend and believe that we can not only compete but win against the best teams in our league. Defense continues to be our biggest struggle. The best thing about this group is that they continue to work very hard at getting better and we can see it happening pretty fast.
We had a day off yesterday and the kids hit the weight room pretty hard this morning. No mid-week games leading up to the weekend so we will have time to address some mistakes that have been happening as well as heal up some wounds before we head up to Baltimore for a series against Towson.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! First conference series coming up against Hofstra this weekend. I'll be cheering on our Men's basketball team in the NIT tonight.