A lot of people usually go home for the Spring Break holiday. This isn’t the case for the baseball and softball teams at Union, though. They are busy road tripping, practicing, playing and catching up on either laundry or Netflix shows.
Sophomore athletic training major Molly McKelvy told me of her plans for the break. She said that she plans to catch up on sleep, practice, and and then most likely lay in bed and watch Netflix when she gets some free time. She also discussed the camaraderie with her teammates over break.
We usually all stick together over break, We will go eat together, hang out and go to practice and wake up and do it all again the next day.”
I asked senior economics major Marty Coursey what his plans were over spring break, and the answer was pretty straightforward. “Fortnite. Sleep. Do laundry,” he said.
The teams will be traveling the majority of spring break as well, which means a lot of junk food to snack on en route.
“You have to mix the salty and sweet. Sometimes sour,” Coursey said. “The three S’s. And emergency water.”
The softball girls evidently do the same thing. According to McKelvy, she usually brings Goldfish or Cheez-Its, and then something sweet.
While McKelvy usually watches Netflix, music is also essential on long road trips. I asked Coursey and his teammate, David Robins, senior marketing major, what they usually listen to.
“Music is all over the spectrum. It’s called shuffle,” Robins said after some debating. “When I get desperate, I try to get people to send me music.”
But the answer to the question wasn’t as hard come to for Coursey. “All I do is listen to Dave Matthews Band.”
The reason music is so essential on a road trip is because it’s usually what you fall asleep to. And sleep is imperative as an athlete. I wondered if they truly get to catch up on sleep since they are still playing throughout the week.
“The amount of rest we get is crucial,” said Coursey. “On the days we have games, we get there at 10:30 [a.m.], and we don’t leave until 6 or 7 [p.m.].”
“And the whole time, there’s a little cloud of homework above my head,” Robins said.
“That’s the worst,” Coursey said. “Going to the library after a game.”
“Do you ever get to sleep?” I asked. “Or is it just constantly baseball?”
“We usually do summer ball and this,” Robins said. “During summer ball, we get our sleep. But here, it’s like class, class, class.”
I asked if the whole journey of college sports was exhausting. While most people are on break, these athletes are still cracking out work, both physically and mentally. Since Coursey and Robins are seniors, this is their last semester playing baseball for Union. But apparently the moment isn’t just bittersweet for these passionate players. Both of them will be truly sad to leave the team.
“I definitely won’t be happy,” Robins said. “My body is going to be happy.”
“Everybody kind of hurts,” Coursey said.
Even the pain isn’t enough to kill their spirits, though.
“It’s a lot of fun getting to play college sports,” Coursey said. “You get to wake up and practice baseball. You’re living the dream. It’s something that you take for granted sometimes.”
“Absolutely,” Robins said. “I wouldn’t take it back.”
I asked if the team planned to do something celebratory since they would be spending most of their break crammed together on a bus.
“We will probably do something as a team over spring break. We could do a potluck,” Coursey said to Robins.
Being crammed on a bus isn’t so bad though, evidently. (Except, of course, for the rides back after games when the team doesn’t get to take a shower. The environment can be a bit hostile. “In terms of Fortnite, it’s the Musty Mier,” Coursey said.)
“As far as the four years I’ve been here, this team gets along more off the field than any other team I know,” Coursey said.
Robins agreed with him. “We’ve been through a lot together.”
There are a lot of hurdles to jump over as a team, such as the stereotypes that immediately land on a lot of the players. “We’ve just gotta get past them,” Robins said.
“We are good people and we just want people to come to our games,” Coursey said.
