My biggest accomplishment and the man who helped me to get there

My dad likes to say I was born with a glove on my hand and my first word was softball. When I was old enough to walk, a softball was placed in my hand and I was told to “throw.” My father’s dream of having his little girl be a softball star was exactly the image set in his mind the minute that he knew my mother was having a girl. Shaping this image exactly as he hoped was exactly what I had hoped for but little did I know the challenges or stress I would have to endure to get there.

I still remember my first official softball practice. There I stood surrounded by these life-size girls who intimated me to the point where all I wanted to do is be positioned in right field to pick grass. Being only 6 years old at the time the bats, balls, and ba...