Gripping her bat, junior Teely Salazar keeps her eyes locked on the pitcher’s mound. She waits for the wind-up, thinking to herself, “Just hit the ball hard.” And she does. Her bat strikes the ball with a sharp clang, and the ball flies over the fence. Spectators cheer from the bleachers as she runs the bases, her teammates gathering at home plate to celebrate her home run. When she reaches them, they surround and embrace her, and she “can’t get enough of them.”
For many high school students, summer is a time to enjoy the break from school and hang out with friends, but for Teely, summer is a time to work harder and focus on softball, not relax. Whether she is doing weight training early in the morning or driving multiple hours for travel softball in an entirely different state, she spends her summer preparing for college recruitment while also making countless sacrifices to get there. Coaches may begin recruiting her Sept. 1.
“It’s just softball all summer, but I know I have to make sacrifices,” Teely said. “I’ve figured out how to handle it over the past few months. I’m achieving goals here. I know I can do it.”
Because of travel softball’s demanding schedule, she is almost never at home. She has traveled to many states already, including Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma, and will leave for California for the rest of the summer July 15. Her most recent tournament in Colorado kept her from home for 13 days. She said the week of July 6-9 is her “only week off” for the summer.
“I just got back from Colorado,” Teely said. “The previous week I was in Oklahoma, and then the previous week I was in Kansas. Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve been at home. These past few weeks I spent in Colorado, I’ve missed home so much. I’m a homebody. I really like my family.”
Her home is not the only thing softball takes her away from, however. It also takes her from her friends and opportunities to enjoy a normal high school summer.
“I do miss not being able to be with my friends in the summer, honestly a little left out,” Teely said. “It’s just mainly in the summer when they’re out doing stuff and I’m playing softball, but when I get back, I have a whole school year with them, so I’m fine with that.”
Unlike other summers, this summer is the first that she is not playing basketball. Instead, she decided to put that time into softball, realizing her biggest opportunity for growth.
“Usually, I’d have to go play basketball the first few weeks of summer,” Teely said. “This is my first year not playing basketball this summer. I’m sacrificing that for softball.”
Looking ahead, she knows all the sacrifices and work she has put in will be worth it. Travel softball is a great way to get attention from college recruiters, and many schools have already expressed interest in her.
“The biggest obstacle is probably the pressure of knowing that there are schools that are watching you that might want to recruit you,” Teely said. “My end goal is to play D1, possibly Power 4. I hit three home runs in one day at our tournament Saturday to get us into the championship bracket, and when I hit the third, they started writing my name down, and I was like, ‘Man, I have to keep this up. This is good.’”
While she gives up a lot for softball, it is not always rewarding immediately. Learning how to get back up after getting knocked down is, in her words, “all mental.”
“You’re going to fail 90% of the time in the sport of softball,” Teely said, “but it just matters when you succeed, then you forget about the failure. ‘Just hit the ball hard’ is what I say every time. It’s a mental state behind the scenes. Don’t play for the coaches. Play for you.”
When she gets discouraged, she leans on the people in her life to keep her going. This includes her family, her coaches and, most importantly, her parents.
“I love my parents,” Teely said. “They’re the reason I’m where I’m at right now. I wanted to quit a couple times, but they never let me, and I never will. I love having [my mom] as a coach because she pushes me. When she’s on the field with me, it’s like I play for her, too.”
After starting softball at only 3 years old, Teely has grown up with the sport, and it has continued to be a constant in her life, even 13 years later. Softball, while helping her develop in her athletics, has also influenced the person she is today and will continue to become.
“Softball is everything to me,” Teely said. “Softball taught me all your sacrifices will pay off, but it depends on how hard you work. It has always been my No. 1 sport. When I graduate college, play my last softball game, walk off that field one more time, I’ll be crushed, but there’s more to life than softball.”
The Martin's Mill Chronicle 