Rain, other teams bailing out, and Firehawk forfeits reduced the Shalhevet softball season from 10 games to four this season, meaning the Firehawks had twice as many games cancelled as they played.
And that was only part of the problem.
Team members also complain that the season has been disorganized, and that many players are just on the team just so they do not have to go to PE class. While many on the team play hard to win, the disorganization and different motivation of other teammates upsets the hard-working players.
“Our practices as well as our games are often cancelled, and when our practices are not cancelled, not everyone shows up,” said Ariella Joffe, sophomore first-baseman who showed up to every game and most of the practices.
Like most other schools, Shalhevet has a policy whereby any student who is on a sports team is excused from PE. Instead of gym class, they get a study period.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not serious about the sport, players said.
“Even though I am doing softball to get out of PE at school,” said sophomore Shir Alkoby, “I do like playing in the few games we have. The only thing I really don’t like is when people complain to me that I just joined the team to get out of PE.”
Athletic Director Mr. Joel Fisher told The Boiling Point that he tried to get the team to play as many games as possible, but other teams don’t always commit to the scheduled games. He offered YULA many different possible dates to reschedule their game, he said, but declined them all.
“Out of the six cancelled games, three of them were scheduled against LA Adventist, which ended up not having enough players for their softball team,” Mr. Fisher said. “Another game was rained out, YULA backed out on another and the Firehawks decided to forfeit a game to participate in Color War.”
Calls to YULA players to find out why it had forfeited were unsuccesful. But Firehawk co-captain Rachel Goldinger said the disorganization wasn’t the team’s fault.
“The fact that the cancelled games don’t get rescheduled is no fault to our team,” said Rachel, a senior. “The disorganization of our team comes from not knowing our schedule.”
Even though the softball team missed so many games, they showed improvement as the season went on. Their first game was a blowout — so bad that Rachel and co-captain Keren Meir refused to tell the Shalhevet players the score. They lost their second game 12-1.
But the team’s third game was a victory: 15 – 10 against Summit View.
Rachel noted the quick progression of the team. Seeing as a quarter of the team are freshmen, the team as improved dramatically.
“We have definitely improved tremendously so far,” Rachel said. “And we have done great considering that a fourth of the team are freshmen.”
Despite the many complaints about the organization of the team, it is clear that the players are still having a great experience.
“I’m really happy with the way we played at our most recent game,” said sophomore outfielder Rachel Lester, referring to the Summit View game, “We had a tough start, but it’s amazing that after just 3 games, we’ve gotten so much better as a team.”
Overall, for whatever reason students joined the team, many have had a good experience this season.
And Shir Alkoby, who is not required to take PE next year, says that she looks forward to becoming a pitcher for the team as a junior.
