Nov. 10, 2009

Here it goes… the 10th blog of the year. I’m Evan Childs, a sophomore, the tall blonde middle infielder with number eleven on her back. I’m one of six kids, and I have a twin brother. My family and my Christian faith are important to me. Whatever is the opposite of insomnia, I’m pretty sure I have it. If I’m not on the field, the weight room or a classroom, I’m hanging with my awesome roommates…or sleeping.

As I write this on Sunday, I’m in my hometown Conway with my family, watching our women’s soccer team fight to win an SEC championship! I’m from South Carolina and always wanted to be a Gamecock. When I signed to play for the Gamecocks, I signed on to win an SEC championship and make a run at the World Series, and plans haven’t changed. We’ve got an awesome team this year with great leadership and young talent that is in the process of getting even better. Adele Voigt, one of the two seniors on the team, had a good fall with some sweet catches and some clutch hits. She’s the mouth on the team, especially if you don’t feed her (Just kidding…kind of). Lindsay Walker, our other senior, came in from a summer where it was evident she had put in some quality conditioning time. For someone who has an excuse to go half speed because of a bum ankle, you’ll never hear her complain unless it’s complaining to coach to let her back in, or telling her that it doesn’t hurt “that bad.” Both are big assets to our team and offer much-needed leadership.

Like some of the girls have already mentioned, we’ve also added some new staff members. Our new assistant coach, Rick Pauly, is making a noticeably big difference with our pitchers as we can see when they pitch batting practice to us. They’re getting faster and stronger – both mentally and physically. To be a lone male fish swimming in a whole dugout full of estrogen, Coach Pauly is doing very well. ☺

The fall has been great so far with a lot of great laughs, team bonding and some good wins. However, we have a long way to go until the regular season, and we will continue to work super hard on the field and in the weight room with our new strength coach Deisha to get to where we need to be physically.

Anyways, I’m done rambling. Few more weeks full of running, lifting, individual workouts and lame exams, and we’ll all be able to eat a whole bunch of turkey. A few weeks after that, and we have a long break where we’ll all be bundled up with our families opening lots of presents. Shortly after that, we’ll be balling out on Beckham Field.

Our 2010 (tentative) schedule is up online, so print it out, put it on your refrigerator and come support us! Thanks for reading.