We’re excited to introduce a new softball standout to our stable of bloggers… Jenna Lilley, who has a chance next spring to win her fourth state title in four years! She was the Ohio State Player of the Year after leading her Hoover (North Canton, Ohio) team to a 32-0 record with an awesome .697 average and as a sophomore committed to Oregon. One of the best players we saw all summer, she’s also smart (3.9 GPA) and personable and we know you’ll love getting her insights into the softball life…

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Hi everyone! This is my first blog for Student Sports Softball, so I thought I would start off by introducing myself. My name is Jenna Lilley and I am a senior at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio.

I am verbally committed to play softball for the University of Oregon beginning in the fall of 2014. My three years of high school thus far have been spent playing softball for Hoover High School in the spring and traveling all across the country playing for the Beverly Bandits (Chicago, Ill.).

I am very thankful for this opportunity to blog and share my passion for softball with you all.

So you may ask, how did I get started in playing softball? Well, I am the youngest in a family of four children. You could say I started playing softball as soon as soon as I could walk!

I grew up traveling around the country and watching my siblings play. My two older sisters, Tricia and Megan, won state championships at Hoover High School and went on to play at Purdue University and Northwestern University.

My brother Brett played for the University of Notre Dame and was drafted in the 29^th round by the St. Louis Cardinals, where he played professionally for three years. I had three role models to look up to and three best friends I could be positively influenced by for a lifetime.

Ever since I started playing softball, I wanted to be the best. I remember telling my coach in fifth grade my dream was to play softball somewhere in the Pac-12.

My travel softball career started in 3^rd grade at the 10U level with the Ohio Slammers. The Slammers went on to last five years until 2009, when people began to go their separate ways. Playing on this team taught me the basic principles of work ethic, team chemistry, and playing with heart. Those characteristics will stick with me for my life, on and off the field.

In the fall of 2010, I began new “chapters” of my life. I began the start of a four year long journey with the Beverly Bandits 18U team coached by Bill Conroy. At that time when I showed up for the first practice, I was barely 5-foot, 105 pounds and all the girls were convinced I was the bat girl! I still laugh at that today.

I came to play and I would show them that over the next few years. I have made life-long best friends on the Bandits and taken my softball game to the next level. The last three years, I was a part of teams that placed in the top five at PGF 18U nationals.

I moved around to nearly every field position the first two years until I found myself settled in at third base this whole summer. I have gotten the opportunity to play with some of the, not only most talented softball players in the country, but also high quality people that have really made a positive influence on my life the last three years.

In the fall of 2010, I also began high school. Hoover is very well respected for the softball program. I vividly remember gazing at the four softball DI state championship banners hanging in the gym my freshman year. Every chance I got, I would make sure to take the long way to class to catch a peak at the state trophies and the softball record board.

I wanted to be a part of something so big like that. I wanted to be on a team that made their community, school, and teachers proud. Exactly three years later, today, I walk into that same gym and see seven softball state championship banners and I simply smile. I am so grateful to have been a part of three state championship teams in my first three years of high school.

And my senior year, I will tell you I am still going to be taking the long way to class to make sure I get a glimpse of those banners and reflect on them and remember there is still one more year to make history happen. I want this one as much as I wanted the first one. Every time I walk by the school security guard, he always reminds me to “Stay hungry” and gives me a smile on my way to class.

With all that said, I will remember the long runs at nationals and the championships at Hoover. But there is something else that will stick in my mind forever, and that is the journey it took to get to those destinations. It definitely has not been an easy or beautiful journey, but who would expect it to be? If it was easy, wouldn’t everyone do it?

From a young age, whether in the classroom, in between the chalk lines, or in life, I was taught if you want to make big things happen you are going to have to work hard for them. There is no “substitute” for time filled with hard work. Every day I go to the weight room and field to work the hardest I can and be the best I can be. There also is no “substitute” for the love of the game…

I had always “liked” softball and had fun playing all my life, but I started to develop my love for the game in eighth grade. When life threw me some unexpected curve balls, I found myself constantly going to the field and hitting. Even when everything else in my life was far from perfect, I could always go to the field and play.

I began closely following the National Professional Fastpitch league as well. I am so blessed to live 10 minutes away from one of the four teams in the league, the Akron Racers. I would go to every single home game I could and just dream of how I wanted to be them one day.

One particular player stuck out to me, my all-time favorite to this day, Jackie Pasquerella. She played the game with so much passion and heart. As a third baseman, I tried to mimic everything she did; her swagger, her leadership, how she approached each situation.

Jackie is one of the reasons I have developed into the third baseman and player I am today. She inspired me, maybe to be as good as she was one day. So the point I am trying to explain here, is that even when many things in life weren’t going my way, softball was always there for me.

I started to realize how much the game gave me, and that’s when it really hit me that I have so much love for this game. From this point on, I played softball with more passion than I ever had before. In the long run, everything happened for a reason and the adversity I had to overcome truly brought out my love for the game.

“Softball is my passion, and it’s what I do, but I it does not define me as a person.”-Michele Smith

As always,

Jenna