Spring might seem like its miles away, it’s next semester forheaven’s sake, but the Storm is gearing up for another softballseason already. One of the biggest things on the minds of all theladies on the team is the yearly trip to Florida over springbreak.

The team will go to Florida for a total of 10 days. Last yearthey played two games a day for six days, coming out victorious inevery one and they still had time to go out shopping, have fun inthe sun and play on the beach.

“We went 12-0 last year, which was really cool,” said seniorMichelle Montgomery.

But, there seems to be one issue:

“Thirty-seven girls completed fall workouts, and coach HenryChristowski can only take twenty-one girls,” said senior SaraKahler.

Doing some brief math, that would make about sixteen girls alittle unhappy that they will be spending their spring break inIndianola, Iowa.

“The bottom line is that coach Christowski can only taketwenty-one girls,” said sophomore Kasey Keimig. “Because of that,he is going to take the best girls so that he can put the best teamon the field that he can.”

It’s not quite that simple though, because there is a processthat has to be gone through.

According to sources, there are 10 practices in the fall, andthese practices are more for evaluation than skill honing.

“You get rated on all sorts of softball skills: bunting,hitting, sliding, running, catching, etc., and then they averagethe team and everybody gets a number,” said sophomore ErinAllsup.

The number received is a number that is between one and thenumber of girls that finished fall workouts that year. Logic wouldsay that the girls with numbers one through 21 would be the onesthat go to Florida.

“It’s not that easy,” said sophomore Bradi Smith, “because coachChristowski has to take into account that he still has to field anentire team, and if there are no pitchers in the top top 21, therehave to be some allowances made for that.”

It would seem that ideally there would be two people for each ofthe nine positions-making eighteen-and then three utility playersfor whatever purpose. Naturally this is not always possible becauseFlorida is a long ways away, and airfare is not cheap anymore.

Florida is only one part of the ladies’ season though.

“We only lost four games all last year, we didn’t lose too manyseniors last year, and our underclassmen and recruiting class isready to step up and fill positions” said Montgomery.

“We probably should have won Nationals last year, so we’re readyto work hard this year and get back to that position,” saidKeimig.

“The best part about softball isn’t Florida or Nationals, it’sthe fact that we have so much fun just being with each other andworking for a common goal,” said Allsup.