Northwestern came back from Texas disappointed and hungry.
The Wildcats had just lost a doubleheader to No. 6 Texas, eliminating them from the NCAA Championships. With a majority of the team coming back the next season, NU hit the practice field with eyes toward returning back to the NCAA Championships and getting all the way to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series. The players said the losses in Austin were not a real motivating factor, but it was more of a taste of the ultimate goal the Cats were working toward.
Under the direction of sports performance coach Tyler Jorgensen, the Cats set off on a lengthy five-month-long offseason program in anticipation for the 2013 campaign. The regimen was split into three phases – fall ball, offseason workouts and preseason workouts. The end result was what coach Kate Drohan described as “the best offseason in program history.”
“It’s definitely the best one we’ve had,” senior pitcher Meghan Lamberth said. “We never took a day off and we were always getting better every single day.”
The difficult process began at the end of September and beginning of October with six games in fall ball. However, the toughest parts remained ahead for the Cats as the weather got colder and the softball season was still slowly approaching. Junior infielder Marisa Bast said the most difficult part of the offseason was understanding the benefits of the hard work wouldn’t be realized for awhile.
“For me, it’s knowing that I have to come and be consistent every single day and know that this work will pay off in the spring,” Bast said. “It is hard knowing you’re not going to step on a field for three or four months, so you just have to have the mindset to show up every day and know that the work you put in in the weight room and in the turf room is going to translate onto the field.”
The hallmark of the offseason program was creating competition between teammates. Every Friday the team was split into different groups which competed against one another in an array of challenges. The groups rotated around different stations of different exercises and competed with one another.
Jorgensen said one of his biggest goals with the program was to help the team learn how to come together and support one another. In order to accomplish that, Jorgensen tried to push the team out of their comfort zone and force them to rely on their teammates to get them through those uncomfortable situations.
“Our plan in our offseason was essentially to compete as hard as we can,” Jorgensen said. “Our competition Fridays were geared toward getting them in uncomfortable situations and getting them to compete with each other and also develop that trust within the team to rely on each other.”
The effects from the offseason are already paying dividends on the field for NU. Lamberth said she has gotten her fitness level up, which has allowed her to get more velocity on her pitches and lead the team with a 1.68 ERA, almost two full runs lower than last season.
The improved fitness level has also given Lamberth more power at the plate and she has delivered with four extra base hits on this young season after having six combined in her previous three years.
The program has also helped make the Cats battle tough which has helped them win seven straight games and eight of their last nine contests after losing the first five games of the season. The improvements were seen most prominently during this past weekend when the Cats came from behind three times in the seventh inning and broke ties late in the game twice en route to going a perfect 5-0 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.
A rigorous offseason plan teaches people a lot about themselves and about their teammates. Bast said she learned about how far this team is willing to push itself to accomplish its goals.
“I learned how much we thrive in competition and how hard we’re willing to work each pitch and each game,” Bast said. “That will take us far.”
