58 // VARSITY February 20, 2014
INSIDE
SOFTBALL
Break gives Badgers
opportunity to improve
Head coach Yvette Healy talks about resilience
BY ANNA POULTER-HENDRICKSON @BADGERSOFTBALL
J
ust nine games into the
season, the Badgers
found themselves bat-
tling adversity at the FIU Clas-
sic last week. Wisconsin was
swept on opening day of the
classic before rebounding for
a pair of wins, including a 9-1
win over Florida Gulf Coast
that included season highs in
hits, runs and stolen bases.
Now with a week off from
competition, UW has the op-
portunity train resilience.
Head coach Yvette Healy
writes about resilience in her
weekly blog for UWBadgers.
com.
"Resilience. This is a core
skill we all wish we had more
of. It's important to sports, and
critical to life. Can you bounce
back from failure? Can you
overcome adversity? Do you
have the ability to persevere when things
get tough? If you really want to train re-
silience, you need failure."
With an unrelenting schedule, the Bad-
gers will have to work hard to get back
above .500. A trip to Texas A&M features
two games against the No. 12-ranked Ag-
gies and a visit to California pits the Bad-
gers against three ranked foes.
Healy continues in her blog, adress-
ing the challenge the season holds, the
adversity the Badgers will face and the
team's goal for this week:
"This spring is certainly a gut check
for our Badger softball athletes and
staff. There are challenges each and ev-
ery game. There's adversity every pitch,
and every inning. Yet somehow you can't
prepare for how it feels. You really have
to live through strikeouts, losses, errors
and giving up home runs to experience
it, learn from it, flush it and move on.
"These are the times that teach resil-
ience. When you pour your heart into
something and lose, that's when you're
ready to learn. These are the moments
that character is formed. If you dig deep,
take responsibility for your perfor-
mance, learn, make changes, and truly
work hard, we'll all emerge stronger and
tougher.
"We're learning resilience right now,
each and every morning we wake up, get
back to work, and get better. Our goal
this week is to keep learning, and to play
better softball. That's all there is to do."
SCHEDULE (4-5)
COMING UP
Feb. 28 Texas A&M CC 10 a.m.
Feb. 28 #12 Texas A&M 5:15 p.m.
Mar. 1 Texas A&M CC 12:15 p.m.
Mar. 1 #12 Texas A&M 3 p.m.
Mar. 2 UConn 10 a.m.
