JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The
New Jersey City University softball team spent the final days of its off-season performing community service on Thursday, January 26, when the Gothic Knights conducted a free clinic for young athletes in the town of Guttenburg in northern Hudson County.
During the three-hour clinic at the Anna L. Klein Elementary School, for players ranging in age from nine to 16, NJCU's players conducted drills to teach the players infield, outfield, pitching and catching skills. At the end of the clinic, the attending students had a chance to participate in a question and answer session.
“Our main objective as players was to instruct proper mechanics while being a role model at the same time” said junior third baseman
REBECCA SATZ (Morris Plains, NJ/Morristown), the 2010 New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year. “Due to the fact that these players were young, none of them had specific positions so as coaches we created outfield, infield, pitching and catching stations that everyone could rotate to. This gave the young players a chance to work on their outfield skills with collegiate level outfielders and vice versa with the infield. We managed to incorporate challenges involving new throwing techniques which taught them how to manage pressure and efficiency.”
“During water breaks we had our pitchers do some live throwing and our outfield and infield ran through drills just to give the girls a visual of what a productive practice looks like.”
“The coolest part was hearing the cheers from the girls,” said junior pitcher
ASHLEY O'BEIRNE (Wood-Ridge, NJ/Immaculate Conception). “The gym was really small but we got a lot of work done. It was a really great experience because we were able to give back to the community for the first time in a while with a clinic. The atmosphere was awesome and the girls really appreciated our help. We all saw a lot of potential in these young girls that will surely
make an impact in the Hudson County softball programs. It was just cool to see the smiles on these girls' faces. On top of that experiences like this even help us, to work harder, to become a closer team, and really focus on what we teach.”
After ninth-year head coach
Bridgette Quimpo spoke about fundamentals and the importance of good throws, the participating girls were split by age group.
Senior
STEPHANIE GOMEZ (South Plainfield, NJ/Belleville), sophomore
CASEY PEREZ (West New York, NJ/Academy of the Holy Angels) and freshmen
JESSICA CHANDLER (Fountain Hills, AZ/Fountain Hills) and
TAYLOR SETAR (Carteret, NJ/Carteret) demonstrated specific outfield skills, including how to track a fly ball and drop steps.
Senior
MEGAN GINTER (Nutley, NJ/Nutley), Satz, sophomore
JANISSA CARDONA (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) and freshman
NICOLE CALIXTO (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) conducted an infield skills session, including back hand and glove hand fielding and effective throwing.
O'Beirne and senior
JESS MUCERINO (Whippany, NJ/Whippany Park) discussed fundamentals of effective pitching while sophomore
MARISSA BARISO (Hewitt, NJ/West Milford) worked with catchers on how to correctly block and ball and how to field a bunt.
At the end of the drill session, the NJCU players demonstrated how all the different skill sets look once put together and how they are useful in an actual game.
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