On January 3rd, 2008, Corrie Brooks, #27 on the University of Florida Gators Softball team, spent the afternoon with some of the girls from the North Brevard Blaze Fastpitch Softball organization. She came out to talk to the girls and to share some of her experiences about being a college athlete for a college with the best athletic program in the country. This is just a part of the wisdom and insights that she shared with us:

*  At the University of Florida, if you are a Student Athlete, the Student part comes first. If you don’t have the academic grades or can’t maintain your grades, you will not be a Student Athlete. If you have a class that is scheduled at the same time as a practice, the class comes first and you’ll just have to get to practice as soon as you can.

*  As a player, you must concentrate on the fundamental skills. If you lack the fundamentals, you will not be able to advance to college level play.

*  The only difference between practice and game play is the jersey. You should practice with the same effort and intensity that would in a game.

*  When you step onto the softball field, everything else is left behind. You should concentrate 100% on softball.

*  If you make an error or strike out or make a bad play, you should not show your emotions, shake it off and move on with the game. You should never throw your gear around or show a bad attitude. You should also never bad mouth other players, coaches or parents. College coaches will never have a player on their team with a bad attitude that will ruin the team’s chemistry.

*  At the college level, coaches stress punctuality and time management skills. At the University of Florida, if you are not 15 minutes early to practice, then you are late.

*  As a college athlete, you are evaluated every second that you are in your uniform. You are evaluated on how you warm up or how you just go around and just talk to people and goof off.

     Corrie also worked with the girls on some fundamental fielding and throwing exercises.

     After fielding exercises, each girl was given the opportunity to bat. After hitting a few balls, Corrie analyzed their swing and helped them to improve their swing.

     When fielding and batting was complete, the girls gathered to thank Corrie for coming out and sharing her experience, skills and time. Even though Corrie already is and always will be a Gator, we also bequeathed unto her the title of Honorary North Brevard Blaze Team Member. So far, she is the one and only person with this title. She then signed numerous autographs, everything from Softballs to visors to jerseys to stat sheets. Everybody had a great time and were thoroughly inspired by what Corrie had to say.

We all wish Corrie the very best of everything, a great Softball season and

     The PAL North Brevard Blaze would like to thank Reliant Energy Indian River Station for generously sponsoring the PAL North Brevard Blaze. Reliant Energy’s business philosophy is founded on building solid relationships with the people and communities they serve and our team truly appreciates and is humbly honored by being sponsored by Reliant Energy.

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