SACCO: This old hat feels so new at Stuarts Draft

STUARTS DRAFT
It’s the kind of answer to a question that boggles the mind and makes you flip your sunglasses down so nobody can see you roll your eyes.

But wait before you act. Think a bit before you start pulling your Aviators down. When the players on the Stuarts Draft softball team speak, it’s worth a listen. And, when you listen, you realize it makes sense.

So, you ask, how does such an old hat feel so new?

Well, silly, it’s pretty simple. Put yourself in the cleats of a 14-year-old girl wearing a maroon softball jersey with “Cougars” splashed across the front. Think for a while about what it was like back when your spine was as straight as a light pole and you didn’t get winded walking up a flight of stairs. You know those days, when sports were everything – heck, maybe the only thing – and you couldn’t wait to be on the varsity.

Yes, the magical word. After years of toiling in Little League and JV, you finally can tattoo that big old “V” on your forehead.

That’s how it’s new. That’s why, when you ask freshmen Lauren Campbell and Emmy Blacka what’s so exciting about this season, their eyes turn as big as saucers and they look at you like you’re wearing a I Heart Fort Defiance T-shirt — which happens to be the team to beat in the Southern Valley District these Cougars call home.

“Just the name of ‘varsity’ makes it sound so much bigger,” Blacka said. “It’s completely new.”

Yet it’s so old hat for these two and fellow freshman Morgan Holbert.  The three of them have been playing softball together since they were sucking on bottles and using bibs. They were members of a Blue Ride Nationals Babe Ruth team that went to a little something called the World Series. To say they’ve been champing at the bit is akin to wondering if Oprah Winfrey could buy and sell us all.

The answer to both, as you should know, is a resounding yes.

And by striking out the first five Little Giants she faced, Campbell set the tone. The final strikeout in that string saw Waynesboro’s Heather Sutton turn into a statue at something Campbell calls her “funky pitch.” It’s a hodgepodge of curve, drop and change-up. It had the stands oohing in unison when it hit the glove and the umpire rang it up.

“It really messes them up and, when I pitched it to her, she didn’t know what to do,” Campbell said. “She looked really confused, so I guess it worked.”

Campbell’s been working it all week, tossing a no-hitter against Harrisonburg and following up with a one-hitter against Waynesboro on Thursday en route to a 14-0 win. And while Campbell set the tone from the circle, it was Blacka who set it all up from the plate – blasting a first-inning two-run double. The Cougars never looked back, and the Little Giants never recovered.

The future?

Well, that’s in the hands of the Draft players – a young core that knows how to win because they’ve won before.

And it has coach Michelle Campbell smiling.

“The future,” she said, “is definitely bright.”

Maybe that’s why she wore sunglasses.

Yeah, because wearing sunglasses to block out the sun is so old hat and, at Draft, this all seems so new.