JERSEY CITY--The New Jersey City University softball team spent the final days of its off-season performing community service on January 26, when the Gothic Knights conducted a free clinic for young athletes in the town of Guttenburg in northern Hudson County. During the three-hour clinic at the Anna L. Klein Elementary School, NJCU's players conducted drills to teach the players infield, outfield, pitching and catching skills. At the end of the clinic, the attending students had a chance to participate in a question and answer session.
“Our main objective as players was to instruct proper mechanics while being a role model at the same time” said junior third baseman Rebecca, the 2010 New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year. “Due to the fact that these players were young, none of them had specific positions so as coaches we created outfield, infield, pitching and catching stations that everyone could rotate to. This gave the young players a chance to work on their outfield skills with collegiate level outfielders and vice versa with the infield. We managed to incorporate challenges involving new throwing techniques which taught them how to manage pressure and efficiency.”
“During water breaks we had our pitchers do some live throwing and our outfield and infield ran through drills just to give the girls a visual of what a productive practice looks like.”
“The coolest part was hearing the cheers from the girls,” said junior pitcher Ashley O'Beirne. “The gym was really small but we got a lot of work done. It was a really great experience because we were able to give back to the community for the first time in a while with a clinic. The atmosphere was awesome and the girls really appreciated our help. We all saw a lot of potential in these young girls that will surely make an impact in the Hudson County softball programs. It was just cool to see the smiles on these girls' faces. On top of that experiences like this even help us, to work harder, to become a closer team, and really focus on what we teach.”
After ninth-year head coach Bridgette Quimpo spoke about fundamentals and the importance of good throws, the participating girls were split by age group.
Senior Stephanie Gomez, sophomore Casey Perez, and freshmen Jessica Chandler and Taylor Setar demonstrated specific outfield skills, including how to track a fly ball and drop steps.
Senior Megan Ginter, Satz, sophomore Janissa Cardona and freshman Nicole Calixto conducted an infield skills session, including back hand and glove hand fielding and effective throwing.
O'Beirne and senior Jess Mucerino discussed fundamentals of effective pitching while sophomore Marissa Bariso worked with catchers on how to correctly block and ball and how to field a bunt.
At the end of the drill session, the NJCU players demonstrated how all the different skill sets look once put together and how they are useful in an actual game.