The women’s softball season was cut short after needing to forfeit.
Athletic director Deborah Hefter said the sport needed to forfeit due to a number of reasons. With the athlete’s health and safety considered, the field was not in the best playing condition.
Efforts to have the field repaired to be playable, however because of different factors such as weather delays, made it difficult for this to be done in a timely manner. The program also had a lack of student athletes wanting to participate this season which made it difficult to have enough people to sustain the team.
“The coaches worked tremendously to recruit as many players as they could,” Hefter said. “The student athletes worked tirelessly, worked so hard in the gym and in every opportunity that we gave them, every facility that we gave them to help them prepare but I think just without having that field and that really designated safe place for them to practice it just really wasn’t gonna necessarily come to fruition.”
Hefter said the team could see what was happening throughout the season and that the athletics department explained to them that the team was not at fault.
“We tried to really explain to them that it wasn’t on them the reason why these things didn’t happen,” Hefter said. “There were so many reasons and so many layers and so many levels to why it just couldn’t happen this year and one thing we want to do is take it offline this year so that we could grow it bigger and badder and better for upcoming seasons.”
Sophomore outfielder Elizabeth Dominguez was upset over the news of the season having to forfeit.
“We had all seen this outcome being possible but we didn’t really think it would happen because things were looking better for the team,” Dominguez said. “I put a lot of my own personal time, effort, money even, to try to get the team to have a season, this is also my sophomore year so this would be like my last year playing, and after that it was honestly just like disappointment after disappointment.”
Having a sports season cancelled can affect the program as a whole. Hefter said it impacts the environment and culture of the program. “I think other coaches and other athletes then sometimes think, ‘Well could that same type of thing happen to me?’” While this can cause doubt to other sports teams, Hefter said it also creates opportunity to grow in the upcoming years.
Hefter shared that the program is working toward creating a better season for next year.
“We’re working on recruitment efforts so that again we can start getting bigger and badder for next year,” Hefter said. “We are in the process of also trying to coordinate a new facility for baseball and softball so we’re hoping that over the next five years of that coming into fruition, that helps both of those programs grow into what we know they have the potential to be.”
