|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESMay 29, 2019Sis BatesAmber FiserRachel GarciaDeJah MulipolaOklahoma City, Oklahoma KAREN BRUGGERMAN: I have the pleasure of being executive director of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, NFCA. We have the distinct honor of presenting our All-Americans today. First of all, I would just really like to congratulate the four young ladies up here along with all of the All-Americans named on our list. I believe being named an NFCA All-American is the highest individual honor you can receive on the athletic field. So congratulations. I'd also like to thank the coaches, really all of the coaches in Division I, I think we still have the four in the room here, they're all members of our association. It's the coaches that really make our association great, just like the sport of softball has grown, our association has grown really because of the people involved in it. Couple of special things about this year's group. I think it's pretty awesome that we have not only first team All-American sitting next to me here in DeJah. She's also been named the Diamond Sports NFCA catcher of the year. Very well deserving. I also think it's very interesting that the entire infield for the first base, second base, short and third, they were all unanimous selections, which I think is pretty unique. We don't see that very often. I also want to share with you that we have two four-time NFCA All-Americans in this group, Amanda and Megan have been named four-time honorees. We had 36 total in the history of our association. Those are tremendous honors. Before I turn it over to all the questions for the superstars here, I would just like to tell you a tiny bit about our process because I get asked all the time. You'll see a lot of All-American teams out there, but ours definitely has been around the longest and we're proud of it because the coaches vote on these All-Americans. It's the coaches making the decisions. Any coach in the country can nominate up to eight nominees for all regions. All coaches vote for all regions. Coaches can't vote for their own players. Once we have the all regions, we have first, second, third team all region. We have 10 coaches elected by their peers to serve on the All-American Committee. They represent 10 regions across the country. They flew here on Sunday. One of them most impressively was Loren LaPorte from James Madison who flew from L.A. on Sunday night, we had a 15-hour meeting on Memorial Day. They select the All-Americans. We had some very high-level statistical analysis, we have great dialogue in the room. The coaches actually vote on the All-Americans. We're just very proud of our coaches. We're proud of the student-athletes. It's just a really cool process to be a part of. I'm going to let you now ask the All-Americans some questions. Congratulations, young ladies. Thank you to all the coaches in the room who helped with that process. Thanks for being here. Q. Amber, what does this opportunity, getting to start this game tomorrow, mean to you? AMBER FISER: I think it's huge. It's an opportunity this team has always dreamed about, being able to be the first team in history. It's just an incredible feeling. We know we have to put our emotions aside a little bit, get the anxiety out, go out there and play free. That's all we can really do, just play our game, yeah. Q. Sis, Washington's defense is pretty good. Stating the obvious. You also play behind two phenomenal pitchers. What is it like to play behind them? How does that shift, depending on who is in the circle? SIS BATES: It's so much fun playing behind them. Their competitiveness, it radiates to everybody. It radiates on everyone on the team. I think their energy is really what makes Huskies softball Huskies softball. They're everything about it. It's so much fun playing behind them. I feel like Tarin is such a good leader. Gabbie, you don't see it as much because she doesn't show as much energy as Tarin does, but they're so much fun to play behind. Q. For all four ladies, talk about the one point in the season where you realized this was a team that had the chance to possibly win the national championship. DEJAH MULIPOLA: Starting in the fall, coach had us do kind of a Navy SEAL training to get us to mesh, get the chemistry that we have now. I think early on for me, I saw it as that we have a chance because that bonding kind of helped us. Progressively I felt throughout the season sweeping teams, that was a big deal, but it was ultimately after our loss to Washington, Okay, how are we going to bounce back? I think stepping into UCLA, showing what we had, and we had fight, was ultimately how I saw we can go to OKC, do this. I think that was it for me. RACHEL GARCIA: I'd have to say it was the Arizona series. We didn't get the outcome we wanted. It was Game 2 that this team just showed so much heart. Started a little dance party in the locker room beforehand. Just had so much fun. We just shook that last game off, focused on the moment. Just being able to see Megan come in and start that game, Holly do her job, I come in and have their backs. All three of us, that was the defining moment for all of us. AMBER FISER: I think it kind of started in pre-season for us because we had one of the hardest pre-seasons in the country. Playing against all the big names out there, holding our ground against them, playing them close, beating some of them was big for us. Gave us a confidence booster there. I think also post-season, playing against Georgia and LSU was kind of when we took it one game at a time and saw our opportunity. SIS BATES: I think it really comes from our senior leadership on our team. We have a lot of young rookies on the team. Their leadership along with Coach Tarr, they've shown us what Huskies softball is, what it is to be a Husky. I think throughout the year we've just gained this awesome chemistry. We truly love each other. We play for each other. I think that's where it really stems from. Q. Fiser, watching your career, you've always been good, better and better and better, breakout season this year, poison the mental game. What has contributed to that growth? AMBER FISER: Just knowing I have confidence in my team. I think we all came together more as a family, more than ever. We're the closest we've ever been. Being able to face so many different adversities throughout the season gave us that opportunity to overcome those and stick together, just play hard. Go out there, not letting anything really get to me. I've been saying this all year long, control what I can control. Being able to go out there one pitch, one game at a time. KAREN BRUGGERMAN: Thank you, ladies. Congratulations. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|