The Virginia softball team enters the upcoming season looking to start fresh following a last-place finish in the ACC last year. The team features eight new players and a new head coach who have the team thinking the Cavaliers have the potential to turn things around this year.
"I'm very optimistic," sophomore infielder Kelly Haller said. "I'm one of those people that always thinks they have the best teams. I would tell you that we're going to win ACCs and go to [the NCAA] Regionals, and I really think that that's possible."
Senior captain Meghan O'Leary expressed a similarly positive attitude.
"This is a new season," O'Leary said. "We learned from our mistakes but we're also ready to take on new challenges. Every game is going to be a fight for a win rather than fighting not to lose."
Much of this change in attitude can be attributed to the coaching style of coach Eileen Schmidt, hired after the end of last season to replace Karen Johns.
"I voted us No. 1 in the ACC," Schmidt said. "If you're going to walk out on the field, shouldn't you think you're going to win it?"
When asked about the biggest difference between Johns and Schmidt, players seemed to think Schmidt brings a more relaxed style to coaching the team.
"She likes to have fun which is great because we can goof around, but we know when we need to get serious and when we need to get stuff done," Haller said.
O'Leary echoed Haller's feelings about Schmidt.
"She knows how to bring fun to the field, and then be serious and get our work done," O'Leary said. "So we know when it's serious [and] when we need to work hard, but we know when we can smile and have a good time."
O'Leary said she believes the new attitude will help the Cavaliers avoid the pitfalls they faced in the past.
"Last season was hard and we got down on ourselves ... personally, but also on the sport and on the team," O'Leary said. "Having a coach that can joke around with you [has] been a nice change of pace and a breath of fresh air."
Aside from a change in atmosphere, Schmidt said she will focus on getting players back to fundamentals.
"I don't know if we ever really focus on wins and losses," Schmidt said. "I think you focus on making plays and doing things right. And if you do that, the wins and losses come. There's not really a lot you can control besides what you're doing."
According to Schmidt, a big part of fundamentals is manufacturing runs.
"We don't necessarily look at batting averages or power," Schmidt said. "But we look at on-base-percentage, [and] the amount of sacrifice ... flies and bunts as far as moving people. Those are three things that we really have focused on."
O'Leary pointed out the additional importance of the mental aspect of the game.
"Last year one bad thing would happen, whether it be one or two losses or one or two errors in one game, and we'd kind of fall apart," O'Leary said. "In practices we've been working on if we have one bad throw, we don't follow it with a second error ... allowing that one mistake to happen but not allowing the ones after that."
Schmidt appears to be a part of the change as she attempts to build the confidence of her players.
Softball is "hard confidence-wise, and I think that's where we really had to dig in as far as getting kids confident and believing what they're doing," she said.
Schmidt has also placed a strong emphasis on team bonding off the field.
"She's just really team-oriented," Haller said. "We do a lot of team stuff. We do a lot of community service -- once a month -- especially in the fall. We do lots of team activities. [Schmidt is] very big on team bonding and just doing everything together."
As evidenced by the team's involvement in community outreach, Virginia's new coach also works on improving her players off the field.
"She's all about building us as people, realizing that we're athletes in college for four or five years and then beyond that she wants to make sure that we become successful people," O'Leary said.
If Schmidt has her way, the Cavaliers will be successful both on and off the field. With the new team focus, Schmidt said she has high expectations for the 2008 team, noting, "There's no reason they can't do well in the ACC."
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