Feb. 1, 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

This weekend's forecast in Tucson, Ariz., home of the two-time defending NCAA champion Arizona Wildcats, calls for partly cloudy skies with a high of 70 degrees. Perfect softball weather.

In Columbus, Ohio, home of the defending Big Ten champion Ohio State Buckeyes, the forecast predicts a wintry mix with a high of 36 degrees. Not ideal softball weather.

In this contest, the geography advantage seems to be a no-brainer.

"The West Coast is known for softball, that's why we are so dominant," Arizona catcher Callista Balko said. "The weather is great year-round. Who can say that they can go out and throw in the middle of December? It's a huge advantage, getting more practice and preparation time."

According to Top 25-contending teams in cold-weather environments, however, that's not quite right.

Perennial challengers like DePaul, UMass, Northwestern and Ohio State spend up to the first three months of their seasons practicing indoors, but they believe the close quarters give them the advantage.

"We get a chance to really work our skills," UMass coach Elaine Sortino said. "Because you're in a closer environment, being indoors, it makes you pay attention to the little things. It could be a blessing in disguise."

For Northwestern coach Kate Drohan, preparing inside is just a blessing -- there is no disguise.

"It gives us a big advantage in that it forces us to really work on our fundamentals early," Drohan said. "We work a lot on fundamentals so we have a good foundation heading into the season. We break the game down."

Among the list of top-tier cold weather teams, UMass has spent the most time outdoors, logging 2-3 hours outside each week. No. 23 Ohio State and No. 7 Northwestern are spending virtually no time in the elements while No. 10 DePaul had its first outdoor practice earlier this week.

"There's no part of the game that we really can't simulate indoors," DePaul coach Eugene Lenti said. "We work a lot of the short game, bunting, slapping. We're going to work a lot of fundamentals."

Working on the throwing fundamentals of relays and cutoffs is fairly easily accomplished in the confines of an indoor space, but fielding ground balls off of turf or a gym floor is not the ideal preparation.

"As an infielder you really have to pay attention to the bounces you get on the ground ball," Northwestern infielder Jessica Rigas said. "On turf it's pretty true, you're not going to hit any rocks, so you really have to focus and pay attention to finishing the play."

For some infielders, the gym is like New York -- if they can make it there, they can make it anywhere.

"If you can take a short hop off of the rubberized gym floor that's really bouncy, then you can take a short hop off of anywhere," said UMass OF Lauren Proctor.

"When we take grounders on the gym floor they're like bullets, so when you get outside on the dirt it's like slow motion," DePaul UT Sandy Vojik said. "I almost prefer to be inside."

While some outfielders complain about losing fly balls in the lights of an indoor space, others love the edge they get from preparing indoors.

"I actually find it as a big advantage for us," Vojik said. "In the gym, there's crazy lighting in there that helps our eyes. When we get outside, that ball looks like a watermelon coming at us."

"The cool thing about the turf room is it's going to help our vision so much," said Northwestern infielder Gina Gonzalez. "When we go outside, the ball's going to look like a beach ball, so I think that's kind of a fun way of looking at it."

On the hitting side, players can swing away in an indoor batting cage for hours, but without being able to follow the path of their hit, players sometimes don't get as much out of the practice as their outdoor counterparts.

"Great players know what feeling is and our kids know when they're driving the ball," Sortino said. "You know when you get a pretty good piece, but it's hard not to see where the ball's going sometimes."

Ohio State does not have the ball-path problem of some of its fellow cold-weather schools, but time is a factor in Columbus. The Buckeyes practice in the school's indoor football facility, where seven-story ceilings allow for full batting practice and scrimmages, even if one side of the outfield is shorter than the other. The problem is the neighbors, as the Bucks must split time in the space with every other spring team.

"I think that in terms of time, it gives us a little bit of a disadvantage," said Ohio State senior outfielder Liz Caputo. "We share this indoor space with all sports that are competing right now and each team gets it for two hours a day, so it's hard. If we want to come in and use the space for extra time, it's tough to do that."

The other problem with a high-ceilinged practice space? Sound effects.

"Communication's a little different from when we're outside," Gonzalez said. "Inside it's more of a challenge to project our voices because of the echo. It's a different simulation of the game indoors than if we were practicing outdoors, but that helps us communicate better later."

Rather than playing their first games in the snow, all of these cold-weather teams travel during the first weeks of the season. Planning trips to warm-weather oases from Florida to California, these players wait all winter to put their cleats in some real dirt and shake off the indoor cobwebs, so even after months of indoor training, adjusting to the elements is quicker than one might think.

"Before our first game in Arizona we always have a practice the day before," Gonzalez said. "It only takes about one night for us to adjust."

Perfecting the early-season two-step of playing outdoors on the weekends and indoors during the week can get tedious at times, but it makes the players truly appreciate their time on the dirt.

"In some regards there's a kind of cabin fever," Ohio State coach Linda Kalafatis said, "but on the other side, there's a lot of excitement."

The excitement moves outside this weekend as DePaul goes to Georgia while Ohio State and UMass travel to Florida to open their seasons in some natural light.