Q&A with Valparaiso HS student, Xtreme Fastpitch softball player Elizabeth Kosek
VALPARAISO, Ind. — Fourteen-year-old Valpo High student Elizabeth Kosek plays catcher and shortstop for Xtreme Fastpitch, a girls fastpitch softball team that plays throughout northern Indiana. She shares some lessons she鈥檚 learned in her seven years of playing softball.
What do you love about your sport?
Elizabeth Kosek: I love the competitive nature that softball brings. I also love all the people you meet from your teammates to coaches, to even the girls I am playing against.
What is your biggest challenge and what do you do to manage it?
Kosek: My biggest challenge is keeping my emotions level.聽I don鈥檛 want to get too excited or too low when playing. I understand that softball is a game of redemption and a game that can humble you quickly.
What was the best advice you were ever given?
Kosek: To be myself and to be kind.
Do you have a pregame ritual?
Kosek: Before every game I put on my eye black a certain way and put on my uniform in the same order every time.聽I like to stay loose before the game and not allow the pressure to get to me.聽One way to stay loose is to remind myself that I just need to remember to have fun.
What has being a member of a team taught you?
Kosek: Being a member of a team has taught me how to be selfless.聽I鈥檝e realized that it鈥檚 not only important how I do, but how others do as well.聽We all have a job on the team and we need to work together to make sure everyone is successful at their job.
What is the best piece of advice you received from a coach or mentor?
Kosek: 鈥淒o you鈥�. What they meant by that is for me never to try and be something that I am not. In other words, to play within myself and my abilities.
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