Wednesday, September 28, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
Edwards offers advice for aspiring athletes
By Tom mauldin
Correspondent
Former Sisters High
School standout Cassidy
Edwards is starting her final
year of softball — a sport she
has loved and played for 15
years.
“I was 6 when I played
my first game and have been
playing it ever since,” said
Edwards, a senior at Boise
State University. “It hasn’t
really hit me that it is my
senior year in college. I’m
sure it will soon, but it’s bit-
tersweet. I’ve never thought
the day would come that
would have me saying it’s
‘my last season.’”
She and her Bronco team-
mates have high expectations
for this season, following last
year’s 14-38 finish.
“I’ve been doing a lot of
summer workouts, lifting
heavy three times a week and
working on endurance and
sprints on the conditioning
side, as well as keeping my
arm in shape throwing every
week or so, and having a bat
in my hand,” said Edwards,
who was an All-League per-
former in softball and basket-
ball as an Outlaw during her
2013 senior season.
And, she pointed out that
the team has already begun
“bonding” in preparation for
the upcoming year.
Edwards and Dara
Kosanke are the only two
former Outlaws to play D1
softball.
After hitting .231 as a
junior and splitting her time
between second base, the out-
field and the bench, Edwards
said she wants to have a
complete season the way she
started and finished 2015. She
started 26 of the 42 games in
which she played.
Edwards started the first
five games last season and
was 6-for-16, a robust .375.
Then she slumped as her
batting average dropped to
under .200 and she lost play-
ing time. She kept working
and finished with six hits in
her final 22 at bats to end the
season on a high note.
But the middle of the sea-
son resulted in only four hits
in 27 at bats.
“To make it simple, last
year was a struggle,” Edwards
said. “I was jumbled up in my
own head, trying to figure out
where I fit in on the team. I
was trying to relearn all of the
things I had learned. I started
off strong, and then had a few
down games and got in my
head. From that point I was
stuck. I was second-guessing
myself and not trusting, and
it was really hard to recover
from that. But I finally got
into a groove towards the end
of the season and got my con-
fidence back.”
Edwards said the season
was a lot of relearning and
adjusting the things she had
already learned, and adjust-
ments were many.
“Most of the time it was
simple things like the way
we set up to throw or how
we field the ball,” she said.
“The pitching was a little dif-
ferent as well, pitchers had a
lot more movement and con-
trol over where they put the
ball, but that was something I
could adjust to.”
Edwards’ .231 batting
average was the first time she
ever batted under .400. She
averaged over .500 in high
school and hit better than
.400 at Clackamas each of her
two seasons.
She figures her strong fin-
ish puts her in a good position
to compete for a starting spot,
most likely in the outfield.
Since her first day of high
school ball nearly eight years
ago, Edwards has played
all nine positions. At CCC,
she played shortstop, sec-
ond, center, third, caught and
pitched.
During her days as an
Outlaw, Edwards primarily
pitched. She put her name in
the Outlaws softball record
book for strikeouts in a sea-
son and the lowest earned run
average in a season. Her 236
strikeout total bettered the
mark of 228 set by Kosanke
(2010) and Edwards’
0.91 ERA was lower than
Kosanke’s 1.54 mark, also
recorded in 2010.
During her sophomore
year at CCC, Edwards was
named the NWAC Southern
Division Player of the Year
after batting .407 and record-
ing an 18-5 pitching record
with a 2.39 ERA and leading
the Cougars to the Southern
title and a 35-10 record.
I’ve never thought
the day would come that
would have me saying
it’s ‘my last season.’
— Cassidy edwards
At BSU, she played sec-
ond, pitched and all three out-
field positions.
Edwards said there were
several highlights to her first
year as a Bronco. One was
losing to PAC-12 member
Oregon State, 5-4, in eight
innings.
“It was a great game, we
took a PAC 12 team into extra
innings,” said Edwards. “I
had grown up watching OSU
and to be on the same field
as them was pretty cool, but
to say I competed with OSU
photo provided
former Outlaw Cassidy edwards is in her last season of college softball.
was an awesome experience.”
Edwards offered some
advice for young players who
have the dream of playing
collegiate ball: Work hard
and good things will happen,
but it will not be easy.
“It is definitely not easy,
and not everyone gets to
do it. It takes a ton of hard
work, and it takes time,” said
Edwards, who is majoring in
kinesiology. “There are going
to be days where you want
to quit and be done, but you
have to keep pushing through.
It will make you stronger and
you won’t regret a minute of
it. You have to overcome the
hardships the sport will bring
you, like injuries, and remem-
ber all the good it brings you.
If you follow your dreams
and work hard, and never
let anyone tell you that you
aren’t good enough, good
things will happen.
“I think the most impor-
tant lesson is that it’s always
going to be just a game —
it’s all the things that it has
given to me, the teammates,
the coaches, the successes
and failure, the memories and
all the lessons, that are what
helped me to prepare for life.”
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