Andi Jarvis is our triple threat secret weapon: she writes blogs, does videos and takes pictures for us! The junior catcher who attends Foothill High in Orange County, Calif. and plays for the OC Batbusters-Briggs club team, has committed to Maryland along with her twin sister, Ari.
In today’s blog, Andi recaps the end of her high school season, which would have been a downer except for a very special experience that brightened everyone’s day… be sure to read to the end to learn about this touching display of sportsmanship!
Be sure to see Andi and her teammates at her prom this spring in a special photo gallery!
Check out her recap of how she and twin sister Ari committed to Maryland
Click here to see one of her great video blogs, this one called “A Day in the Life of a Softballer”
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Okay, so I’m pretty sure we can all agree that this winter’s been pretty brutal—at least here in Southern California!— going from frost on lawns to sunburns and beach days.
The weather’s been bipolar, no doubt.
But in a softballer’s life, it’s all about what season we’re in. As the fall club season came to a close, high school season began and a whole new excitement aroused.
I personally love high school season, it’s a small break from traveling, and gives you a chance to play with some of your closest and sometimes long-term friends.
My high school season’s been a constant pattern of ups and down. However, the varsity team this year has been such a blessing.
We’ve had a variety of different girls with different personalities, but this group was special. We originally had five seniors, but were unfortunately reduced down to two, but that didn’t stop us.
Mykenzie Lane and Rachel Burkhardt, who is committed to Syracuse, have been two of the best seniors our program has had. They brought a group of what we like to call “misfits” and we became closer than any high school team I’ve been on the two years previous.
Overall it was a tough year, as we weren’t as successful in league as we had hoped, but we sure had a great time playing together!
No matter what the outcome of our season was, we had smiles on our faces and managed to laugh at the past and continue with our future. We placed 4th in our league (Century League), and won ourselves a spot into CIF after winning a wild card game against Kennedy High School in nine innings.
We lost the first round of official CIF play against Los Osos High, but we didn’t go down without a fight. It was a tough day for our loving seniors, however that day we ended our seasons with one of the best experiences any softballer could ask for.
A little girl by the name of Shelby, who was born with Down syndrome, has been a part of the Los Osos softball team for several years now and at the end of the game we wiped our frowns off our faces, because it was time to give this girl a chance to feel on top of the world.
My Foothill team went onto defense and we tossed the ball to her. When she made contact, we made errors so that she could run around all four bases, hitting a home run.
It was a day none of us will forget and teaches us that even when things don’t go your way, it could be worse and our sport is a blessing. With everything we do, we always have the choice to be positive or dismal and there was nothing more uplifting that being able to put a smile on that Princess’s face.
Be sure to click here to see Shelby’s home run!
Now that the high school season is coming to a close and CIF is finishing up, things are turning over to club ball once again!
Friendlies, showcases, qualifiers, nationals, and my personal favorite, state-to-state traveling.
Summer is softball’s prime time for youth play and with this season there will be new adventures, experiences and, for some, life-changing events.
Here comes the opportunity of a lifetime, so it’s time to gear-up, bear down, apply some sunscreen, and play ball!
— Andi