the roar | sports | 17
friday, april 4, 2014
touching base
Seniors enjoy last season together, prepare for future shilpa saravanan | opinions editor Senior softball players Kayla Bowman and Hallie Zimmerman go back-as friends, as teammates, as practically family-to the seventh grade. “We’re like sisters,” Bowman said. “We’re exactly like sisters. We fight, but we love each other-and we pick each other up on the field.” Head softball coach Rusty Erwin uses nearly identical words to describe the connection between the two. “They look like sisters,” Erwin said. “They act like sisters.” Bowman and Zimmerman spent their first two years of high school together on the basketball team as well as the softball team. Surprisingly, according to both, their friendship grew when Zimmerman made the decision to focus solely on softball, leaving Bowman on her own with basketball for their junior and senior years. “When we were around each other a lot, we’d get tired of each other and we’d argue all the time,” Zimmerman said. “But once we got into two separate sports, we-as friends-grew stronger.” She emphasizes the importance of this sort of bond across an entire team in any sport. “You have to have good chemistry if you want to have a good team,” Zimmerman said. “You can have the best talent in the world, but if you don’t get along with your teammates, you’re going to suck. So, if you have decent talent and put it together, and you have a team who really bonds well, they’re going to be better off.” Both Bowman and Zimmerman recall the slightly bumpy transition from basketball season to softball season that they experienced together during their freshman and sophomore years-the slight overlap between the two seasons meant that they missed part of the preseason each year. “You’d have to come back on the field and earn your spot,” Zimmerman said. “You’re behind, because everyone else has been around since the beginning.” This transition never bothered head softball coach Rusty Erwin. On the contrary, he welcomes
the fact that many of his players participate in more than just softball.
“You can have the best talent in the world, but if you don’t get along with your teammates, you’re going to suck.” senior Hallie Zimmerman
“I like them to be competitive in other sports,” Erwin said. “It keeps the competitive juices flowing. They might be a little slow starting out, but by the time we get to district, you’d never know a thing.” Erwin feels that this competitiveness has helped his team, whom he says has played extremely well so far, but has also been rather unlucky. “We’ve had some adversity,” Erwin said. “We just need to get that key hit every game.” Each game the team plays serves as a countdown for Bowman and Zimmerman-a countdown to the moment when their five years of being family on the field will end. While they’ll both stay in the South, they’ll be across the country from one another: Bowman has signed to play softball at Galveston College, and Zimmerman has signed to Tallahassee Community College. “I’ll definitely cry at the Conroe game, because that’s going to be our last game,” Bowman said. “It’ll be hard.” Both look forward to their futures, though, and, as they both plan to return to A&M after playing softball for two years, they will eventually be reunited-if not on the field.
Senior Hallie Zimmerman prepares to throw the ball back to the pitcher. Zimmerman plans to return to Aggieland and pursue a career in coaching. PHOTO BY SHILPA SARAVANAN
Senior Kayla Bowman takes her batting position. Bowman will continue to play softball at Galveston College for the next two years. PHOTO BY SHILPA SARAVANAN