It's nearly time!
Believe it or not, we are just about two weeks away from the college softball season, and things are already starting to get exciting. We talked to our niece last night who is playing for the Radford Highlanders this year and she let us know that she had successfully made it through "hell week".
Basically, this is a week right after winter break where all restrictions on student athletes are lifted and programs can start beast mode training. I'm talking weight lifting and two-a-days all week, things like that. The softball players actually come back a week before the other students so they at least don't have to worry about academics during this week, which is probably a good thing!
A few days after hell week was over, they had their media day where the players and team all get to have professional head shots for the different forms of media that the university puts out there. For the longest time there wasn't a photo next to our nieces name on the softball web page. That has been rectified now!
Meanwhile, there is a lot of pressure on the team this season. After their phenomenal run last season and nearly making it to the NCAA national tournament, the Radford Highlanders sit in the number 1 position in a preseason poll of the Big South Conference. Oddly enough, they also released the players of the year and all conference members for the 2026 season. I'm not sure how you can do that second part before the season even starts, but who knows.
I think Indiana's football team is a good example of how preseason polls aren't that reliable, but it is still nice to see her team at the top.
Most importantly, the schedule has been released for the 2026 season. @mrsbozz and I already have some plans to make it to a couple of the weekend tournaments, including their opening season run down in North Carolina.
We got the chance to see her play a little bit in the fall, but I am really looking forward to seeing her get back into action. I know she has been putting in a lot of work between then and now. The coaches have been working her hard and my hope is that she is going to be really impressive in her freshman season with the team.
Action gets started on February 5th down in Elon, North Carolina where they are going to be playing a weekend tournament at Elon University. They start things off with a Thursday morning game against St. Joseph's and then an afternoon game against Elon University.
I just hope the weather that is pushing through this week is well out of the way by then. If I am leaving Michigan to head south, I don't want to be dealing with snow and ice. I did rent an SUV just in case. Hopefully we can snag something with four wheel drive or at the very least all wheel drive.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what this season has in store for our niece. You better believe I will be bringing you all the coverage in my blog here!
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
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