Jan. 24, 2008

By Carolyn Braff

CSTV.com

CAROLYN BRAFF
Carolyn is an assistant editor and writer for CSTV.com.
E-mail         ---   Column Archive   --- SOFTBALL 3/7: Return Of The Terps 2/29: (Two And) Oh, Canada 2/15: Throwing Off The Rust 2/8: Northeast Conference Preview 2/8: Summit League Preview 2/8: Planning The Pre-Conference Season 2/8: Bringing The World To The Series 2/8: Bruin Magic In Numbers 2/7: Horizon League Preview 2/5: ACC Preview 2/5: MWV Preview 2/2: Backing Up The Best 2/2: Defense Will Anchor Hofstra's Next Title Run 2/2: Tech Going For Seventh Straight OVC Title 2/1: Getting Better Without Age 2/1: Crowding The Mound 2/1: Sun Belt Preview 2/1: Cold Weather Winners 1/31: New Name, Same Game 1/29: Arizona Is One Man Down 1/28: It's Not Baseball For Girls 1/24: Modeling The Right Role FOOTBALL 01/15: Getting Somewhere 1/7: The Home Team vs. The Road Warrior 1/1: Singing The Maize And Blues 12/27: Up-Downs For Texas 12/18: Lying In Wait 12/11: Warrior Green: The New Boise Blue 12/8: Best Of The Rest 12/4: A Winning Preparation 11/27: Easy Road To The Big Easy 11/20: Running The Backup and Crashing 11/13: Least Common Denominators 11/6: Throw The Ducks A Bone 10/30: Boise Is Back 10/23: They've Got Guts 10/16: Kansas Full of Cupcakes 10/9: Pay Attention To The Men Behind The Curtain 10/2: Not-Such-Surprises 9/25: Irish Inflation 9/18: The Star and The Slump 9/11: Four's No Crowd 9/4: Unmatched Matchups 8/22: No Peterson, No Problem For Oklahoma 8/22: Catch Him If You Can 8/21: Running A Reverse 8/20: Big 12 Conference Preview 8/8: Still No Cigar 8/8: Going and Coming 8/8: C-USA Conference Preview 6/17: Pennsylvania Wins Not-So-Big 33 LACROSSE 5/5: Tigers Limp Into Playoffs 4/7: Home, Sweet Home 3/3: Hoyas Hold On For Another Win 2/16: Accelerating Development 2/15: One More Chance For This Mid 2/12: Wildcats Favored For Three in a Row BASKETBALL 3/16: Bubble, Bubble, Teams In Trouble 3/21: Winona State Still Streaking in Postseason 3/19: Cruising to Perfection 1/14: Penn Has The Tempo To a T 1/12: Columbia Thwarts The Three, Downs Princeton FENCING 3/25: A Rematch to Be Remembered 3/23: Columbia Hopes to Take Two CROSS COUNTRY 9/7: Luck Be A Lambie 9/4: Bringing Charm To The Farm 9/4: Breaking In 9/3: Room to Run GOLF 6/13: Looking The Part

By putting on the uniform, athletes - at every level - implicitly agree to be role models.

With the college athletics stakes higher and exposure better than ever before, the nation's thousands of collegiate players fill those model roles daily, whether they realize it or not.

Particularly in media markets where professional sports teams are few and far between, college athletes open themselves up to a certain degree of celebrity status, although the weight of that status varies tremendously by sport. The Tim Tebows and Colt Brennans of the world have become figureheads in everything they do, from the good - Tebow's vocal hold on his spirituality - to the bad - Brennan's mistake-laden past.

While there are plenty of feel-good stories about college athletes, the most oft-told tales are the feel-bad stories of theft, fights and underage drinking. It seems not a day goes by that some college football player isn't caught in some compromising position. As if to prove my point, while I was writing this column, news broke of two Georgia players being suspended for alcohol-related incidents, two Utah players recovering from stabbing wounds incurred in a street fight and an Oklahoma State player scheduled to be arraigned on complaints of assault and battery and public intoxication - just to name a few of the headlines I had to choose from.

And that's where shifting my coverage from the football beat to the softball beat is a refreshing change.

Making the move from football to fastpitch may seem like a complete disconnect, and in many ways it is. The two sports feature different equipment, different playing fields, even different gendered athletes. The biggest similarity between the two is the one point that connects every college game - the de facto role model status of the students that play it - but it is from that similarity that the most jarring difference emerges.

While too many football players are busy getting themselves into trouble, either forgetting or ignoring their responsibility to set a good example, fastpitch players seem to be keeping themselves out of the blotter, verbalizing instead the need to be good role models for their young fans.

Sure, female college students are generally less prone to finding themselves in street fights than their male counterparts, but in preparing for CSTV.com's softball coverage, nearly every player I spoke with at a top fastpitch program discussed the responsibility she felt to be a role model for young girls.

Few, if any, football players I met in the fall touched on the need to set an example.

"I think that we're good role models for younger girls," said Arizona senior pitcher Taryne Mowatt, one of the most well-known players in the game thanks to the two ESPY awards she won in 2007. "People like to watch us. We're role models really for any girl that wants to play a sport and be recognized."

Softball will never be the high-profile national pastime that football is, but it's not trying to be. The game of fastpitch is a bona fide sport of its own, one gaining in fame and following with each passing season, but the percentage of players with hopes of playing professionally does not hold a candle to the dreams dotting the gridiron. For young fans, that's probably a good thing, since the softball player's student-athlete status is not diluted with NCAA sanctions, pre-graduation departures and shoe deals.

The sport is also played by girls who are not afraid to be feminine, and that is certainly a good thing.

"I think it helps having a team that is a little bit more feminine," said Arizona senior Callista Balko. "People might laugh at that, but people like to watch women athletes who are good. We keep ourselves in really good shape and I think that people like that about us.

"A lot of times you'll get women athletes who little girls don't look up to because they don't relate to them. I think a lot of younger girls can relate to us because we are athletes, but we are women at the same time and we maintain a life outside of softball. I think that the younger generation likes that there is a balance. They see that we are girly and we are feminine, and people like to watch that."

They are also the two-time defending national champions, effectively proving to the next generation that it is possible to be a successful athlete without looking like the new cast of American Gladiators.

Truth be told, the feminine/masculine balance is a hard one for women athletes to strike. While women obviously need a certain amount of muscle in order to compete - especially in a sport like fastpitch, where there's nowhere in the pitching circle for weak muscles to hide - women are often afraid of looking so jacked up that they become less attractive. But the athletes suiting up for Arizona, among other teams around the country, are proud of their femininity. They take pleasure in showing others that it's okay to be both girly and be an athlete, and that's winning a host of new fans for both the Wildcats and the sport in general.

"After the games now there are always little girls waiting around," said Tennessee senior Megan Rhodes. "They want to talk to you and want to get your autograph. Now you can mention softball to someone and they actually know what you're talking about, whereas in the past it was just, `isn't that girls' baseball?"

Obviously, these girls are not attempting to woo fans to the sport on looks alone. Arizona and Tennessee finished 1-2 at the Women's College World Series in 2007 based on talent, but the players recognize that their personalities can positively affect the future of the growing sport.

"One of the things that I give credit to for [the sport's rise in popularity] is the personalities of our players," said Tennessee assistant coach Stephanie Humphrey-Sayne, herself a four-year letterwinner with the Lady Vols. "The girls on our team and other teams in the World Series are just so likable. The kids can relate to them; they see them and say, `I can be just like her one day.' I think girls really notice things like that now and it just gives them something to strive for."

It should give other sports something to strive for, as well.

Thousands more role models take to the nation's diamonds in the next few weeks as the 2008 fastpitch season gets underway.