December 28, 2006

Story of the Year #4: perspective

Rhiannon Kliesing
Special to StudentSportsSoftball.com

First published Dec. 6, 2006 as "Rhiannon's most important lesson learned."

Hi everyone! My name is Rhiannon Kliesing. I'm a pitcher from Pearland, TX, and I just signed with Texas A&M University. I'm the starting pitcher for the Pearland High School varsity team and also my summer team, the Texas Aces Gold.

I was asked to post a blog on this website, so I thought I would start with something I just recently completed: my college application essay.

The prompt of the essay was to describe a significant challenge or opportunity and the impact it had on my life. I decided to write about when I went to Gold Nationals in 2005. I had just started sending out college letters in June and two months later I went to nationals as a pick-up player with Texas Impact Gold.

Here's what I wrote...

In the summer after my sophomore year, I was presented with both a challenge and an opportunity when I was asked to go to Gold Nationals with Texas Impact Gold.

pitching

Gold Nationals is the most prestigious softball tournament of the year where the top teams from across the country compete against each other for the championship. Only a select number of teams from each state are granted a berth to the tournament, so a team has to be exceptional to get in.

My team, The Texas Aces Gold, was only one game away in a qualifying tournament from obtaining a berth, but we fell short. Since my team did not qualify, the players were eligible to be "picked up" by other teams who did qualify and go with them to nationals.

Impact Gold is one of the most well-known and well-respected teams in Texas, so I was honored when they asked me if I would like to go to Nationals with them.

I was ecstatic and extremely nervous at the same time. They had placed third at nationals the previous year, so they were expected to do well again this time. I had a big decision to make: should I accept the offer or not?

Although the answer seems obvious now, it wasn't at the time. I had just finished my sophomore year as the starting varsity pitcher, but I was still young and still had some maturing to do.

I hadn't played in front of very many scouts yet and going to Gold Nationals would be like jumping into a giant pool of college coaches—I could either sink or swim.

So many thoughts ran through my head: Am I ready for this? What if I don't play well? Will they mark me off their list for good if I make a mistake?

These negative thoughts discouraged me from accepting the offer, but then I had a talk with one of my good friends. She told me I was good, that I could do it and that I just needed to have confidence in myself. She is the kind of person who tells it how it is, so I knew she was being honest and I took her advice and accepted the offer later that night.

I was able to practice with the team a few times before the big tournament so I could get to know them and feel a little more comfortable with the situation.

Still, I was beyond nervous.

Some of the girls on the team had already played a year in college and there I was... not even a junior in high school yet!

I was not nearly as strong or as experienced as them. They could hit balls farther than I had ever seen. I thought I was way out of my league, but there was no turning back. I had already made a commitment, and they were counting on me.

The tournament was held in California that year and I had never been there before, so I figured that even if I played horrible, I was at least getting something out of it.

When we arrived at the ball fields the first day, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were college coaches everywhere from all over the country. I had expected it be like that, but to actually see it and experience it was a whole different story. It was overwhelming.

My stress level rose immediately and my confidence level dropped in the same manner. I guess one of the girls on the team noticed the tension in my face because she came up to me and told me something that changed my entire attitude.

She said, "The college coaches don't care about the mistakes you make, they care about how you react to those mistakes. If you get down on yourself or get an attitude, the errors will just keep adding up and that's when they mark you off their list, but if you keep your composure and make up for the error in the next play, they'll take note of that. It's all about your reaction."

I ended up pitching only one entire game and a few innings here and there in other games, but I never forgot what my teammate said. If I got a hit off of me, I didn't back down or give up; I worked even harder to strike the next batter out.

The one whole game that I pitched was the game that determined the fourth and fifth place teams and only the top four teams received an automatic berth for the next year. We were playing one of the top California teams and I knew it would not be an easy game.

I ended the game with seventeen ground ball outs, three pop-ups, and one strike out, and I helped Impact Gold get their berth.

We didn't advance after that, but that one game was all I needed. I proved to everyone that I was ready for the next level, but more importantly, I proved to myself that I could play and compete with the top players in the country.

Going into that tournament, I had more doubt than anyone else, but coming out of it, I had more confidence than anyone on the first place team could imagine. That confidence has stuck with me, and it has led me to Texas A&M and I intend to play softball at this incredible school for the next four years of my life.