Taylor McQuillin is one of the top pitchers in the 2015 class and has committed to the Univ. of Arizona.  She plays for one of the premier club teams in the nation, OC Batbusters-Haning, and is also a standout student with a 4.2 GPA at Mission Viejo (Calif.) High School where she earned 1^st team All-Orange County honors this past spring.

Perhaps Taylor’s greatest accomplishment is she has done all this despite having to overcome birth defects making her completely blind in the left eye and with only partial hearing on the left side.

Here is her latest blog for Student Sports Softball in which she explains that there are several reasons for staying motivated after committing to a university including the fact that nothing is official until signed and there’s always a chance that “things can change at any given time.”

Be sure to check out Taylor’s previous blogs and those of our other standout bloggers!

 

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A lot of times people question how athletes continue to be motivated to work when they are already committed to a college. The answer is that every athlete is different so their motivation levels vary based on how they see things and how they feel.

Staying motivated when you are committed benefits you as an athlete for many reasons.

I stay motivated when I am committed because I know that things can change at any given time. One of the reasons I still work hard is because a commitment isn’t official until the paper is signed on Signing Day of your senior year.

If you don’t continue to work hard and be the player that the college first saw, then they could go find someone else to replace you. You need to continue to improve as an athlete so that the college stays interested in you and you do not make a fool of yourself or your college.

Another reason I stay motivated, even when I am committed, is because I want to prove to my family and my team as well as everyone else that I am able to play at the college level and show them that I want to be on the field playing.

I also want to prove to myself that I am able to work through my strengths and my weaknesses. I want to show myself that I can get better and want to prepare myself for the college level.

Now that I am committed again, my mindset is still the same as it was before when I was previously committed. Even during the time that I was uncommitted my thoughts stayed the same. The only difference was the fact that I was also playing to be looked at again and was playing to be committed. My mindset stayed the same mainly because my goals and motivation is always the same.

I always want to perform for my team and for myself. I want to make my team believe that I am capable of playing with them and that they can depend on me when they need to. Whether I was committed or not that is and has always been my mindset and the thing that kept me motivated.

Even with nationals and tournaments here and there, the mindset doesn’t change, but the level of play does. Things are added into the mindset and the things that motivate me increase, but the main goal remains the same.

— Taylor McQuillin