Sydney Supple from Oshkosh, Wisconsin is one of the top 2019 players in the country and in 2014 committed to Northwestern when she was just 13 years old. 



The tall lefty, who is also a standout hitter, is a freshman at Oshkosh North High School and plays for the Beverly Bandits-Conroy/Terrell 16U team that is one of the top club teams in its age division.

​​


In Sydney’s latest blog, she writes about taking two months off to recharge her batteries and to prepare for the big push ahead for her and her teammates as 2016 begins!

***

Ten months of straight softball, the best ten months of the year in my eyes!

The other two are mandatory months of rest, hanging up the glove, putting away the cleats giving your mind and body a break. Those two months would go in the category of my least favorite, to be honest.

During this time I have challenged myself to find the benefits of why everyone is making us take time off.

During these last two months I worked on other aspects that will help improve my game, spending all my time pushing myself to the limits in the gym. Each day I’ve worked on getting my body stronger and stronger, but my main focus during this time off has been strengthening my mind.

I recently took up the book “Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence” and I would recommend this book to all athletes of every sport. Taking a lot from this book, what stuck in my mind the most was a quote from Ty Cobb: “The most important part of a player´s body is above his shoulders.”

All of this helped me discover the true meaning to taking time off. It is not just to give the body time to heal, all the bruises starting to fade. It is a time to build up all that hunger and passion for the game!

When you are playing ten months out of the year, you take it for granted knowing every weekend you will be able to step on the field and be with your teammates.

These two months off, I have spent my weekends wishing nothing more than to step on the dirt. I started following the advice of Gary Mack, the author of “Mind Gym,” to visualize the games, my future games between the lines.

That stirred up what will be the greatest hunger inside not only me, but I know my teammates as well. Christmas was the first official day I got to be back practicing outside on the field and it was a Christmas miracle to be able to play on the dirt living in Wisconsin!

This New Year´s weekend the whole Beverly Bandits program is together for the first time in what feels like a long time coming off of the break. All of us are hungrier than we've ever been and ready to make this year the greatest year in Bandits history!