by Kennedy Warder
As I sit and reflect on the Spring season of 2020 I think of a bunch of “what if’s”. What if I batted like last year and ended with a career .566 batting average? What if we won our District? What if our young players accepted the challenge and stepped up to greatness? Well, Spring 2020 left me with a lot of unanswered questions…
I am not one to sit and ponder the what if’s though, as they will get you in trouble and leave you disappointed in the inside. As athletes we hear,” You can only control the controllable” more often than others. At Bethlehem, we used online calls and social media to remain in contact and build each other up during the time of unknowns. We learned how to grow from an inconvenience and get better because of it. I learned a little about me because of no Spring Sports. I am more than softball…
As Spring passed, and we learned there would be no prom and maybe no graduation, Bethlehem really stepped up and made us maintain positive outlooks. They sent every 2020 a pizza one day to let us know they were thinking of us. On another occasion my athletic director and assistant drove all the way to Harrodsburg from Bardstown to porch deliver my cap and gown and a goodie bag. Again, as a sign we had not been overlooked or forgotten. As a senior it would have been easy to have told us to move on, but they didn’t. I felt it was partially my duty in the small softball world of Bethlehem to let the younger players know, we had not forgotten them. This was our chance to leave them with something off the field that they can use on it. You may suffer a bad call, a bad inning, a bad game, or maybe even a bad season. As 2020 passes and maybe gets documented in some book somewhere, it really is just a speed bump in our life. One that we will move on from and learn. Use this to move on to the next pitch in the game.
This inconvenience will also pass, and I will learn and grow from it. I am taking the extra time to be better prepared for my travel tournaments and to be physically prepared for college in a month. I know the challenges will continue, and from each one I will get stronger and wiser as a result. So, class of 2020, and really everyone else, the dugout at Arizona State reads, “So what, next pitch” and that is perfect. Let’s move on to that next pitch and for me that is a College career at Eastern Kentucky University. I hope you are ready cause soon, you will hear, “Play Ball!” and you better be ready because I promise you I will be!
