Wiszard
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 10,937
This girl standing on second base has played softball since she was six years old. She was good but never the best girl on the team. She was fast, but never the fastest. When she was 10, she had her first open heart surgery. When she was 12, she had a pacemaker put in her chest. When she was 15 she had her second open heart surgery. She's always been OK to play softball and volleyball but doctors told her she had to quit soccer because it was too high paced. She played softball all through her high school years and was even on a CIF championship team when she was a sophomore. Preparing to go to UCLA as a bio major in order to become a pediatric cardiologist, she decided she would not have the time to even think about playing softball. The ride was over. In her first quarter at UCLA as a student, she really got to thinking about how much she is going to miss softball so she sends Coach Lisa Fernandez an email in regards to UCLA softball tryouts. Lisa told her that they really don't have tryouts and if you know anything about softball, it's all about being recruited. Stevie was tenacious and Coach Lisa and Coach Kelly finally gave her an opportunity to come out and work out with the team. One day turned into another day. Those days turned into a week and that week turned into two weeks. She didn't know her role and wasn't even sure if she was considered part of the team. She asked the coaching staff what her role was and they told her she was a practice player. They told her that the chances of becoming a rostered, uniformed player were slim at best. She was told she may never get a roster spot. After conversations with her parents about what softball means to her, she decided to stick it out and give it her all and see where it took her. Last Thursday the coaching staff and all the players called her that she would be traveling with the UCLA softball team as a pinch runner. She received all the gear that a regular girl rostered player gets. Nobody ever thought she'd see the field but in the second, third, fourth and fifth game, she got opportunities on the bases. This is proof that if you work hard and have a positive attitude, good things will happen. She was simply a "practice" player. How can this be? The first time she came in as a pinch runner, the commentator have no idea who she was because she is not on the UCLA roster. They called her the phantom runner. It wasn't until the very last game of the tournament that they finally got her name right....Stevie Wisz. Not sure where she goes from here but its gonna be a pretty cool journey.
Cancer doesn't discriminate...don't take your good health for granted because it can be gone in a heartbeat. Please go back and read the last line. This time really understand what it says.
