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In a Class by Themselves
By W. Alan Wiederhold Texas State Media Relations
May 5, 2005 SAN MARCOS - Most coaches have at least one or two players on their team that exemplifies the standards of not only their program, but the ideals of the collegiate student-athlete. For Texas State softball coach Ricci Woodard, it's a whole senior class. And those seniors live up to the cliché "in a class by themselves." The four seniors of the Bobcat softball team, Rachael Bonetti, Lauren Griffith, Leslie Sharp, and Ashley Wilson, have provided ideal leadership for their squad, as all four have excelled not only on the softball diamond, but in the classroom as well. All four players have earned recognition for their academic achievements. Bonetti, Griffith, and Sharp were awarded the Oak Farms Dairy Academic Award earlier this year, which recognizes athletes who have posted at least a 3.0 GPA or better over one of the past two semesters. Wilson received Oak Farms Dairy's "Cream of the Crop" Award, which is given to athletes who have maintained a 4.0 GPA during one of the previous two semesters. From an outsider's perspective, one might worry that the loss of these four exceptional student-athletes to graduation might leave a gaping hole in the team's reputation for hard work and academic excellence. Bonetti, however, says otherwise. "It's a precedent," she said. "When I came [to Texas State], the players who were seniors when I was a freshman led the way and showed us how hard one had to work just to be on the softball team as well as academically. I just hope that whenever I leave here that the players who are freshmen now will recognize all the hard work and dedication that I put into my schoolwork and into athletics and that otherwise I wouldn't have been as successful." All About Time Management
In the classroom, Wilson, a criminal justice major, has maintained a 3.22 GPA and during the academic year was a recipient of Oak Farms Dairy's "Cream of the Crop" Award, which is bestowed on collegiate athletes who have registered a 4.0 in at least one of the two semesters prior to receiving the award. Wilson finds the balance between being a student and being an athlete this way: "It is all about time management and one's priorities," Wilson said. "During my freshman year, [learning to] balance meetings with professors, academic advisors and coaches with practice, tests and school was the toughest thing I have ever done. Once I learned how to manage my time and get my priorities straight, [balancing] was cake, and ever since then, it has not been a problem." Wilson, who ultimately wants to pursue a career in federal law enforcement when her collegiate career is finished, recognizes not only the importance and honor that comes from being an exemplary student-athlete, but also the impact it has on the program and the university. "Knowing that when I leave here people are still going to remember my name and what I did not only for myself but for the program has been one of the highlights of my life," Wilson said. "I just hope that I have instilled in [the younger players] how prestigious our program is and how only a select few get to experience it." Only Room for Two Things
Bonetti, a catcher and utility player from Spring, has attracted attention from the Southland Conference for her academic prowess. She is one of two seniors who were named to the conference's All-Academic team in 2004. "From the second week I came here, Coach Woodard made it perfectly clear that there is only room for two things when you are playing collegiate sports and that is athletics and school," Bonetti said. "She said that you can only be successful at two and some people choose to do three; (the third one is obviously partying), but if you pick the wrong two out of the three then you won't be successful. I attribute a large part of academic and athletic success to Coach Woodard because she is big into stressing those things." Woodard's philosophy in turn has yielded huge dividends for Bonetti. An exercise and sports science major at Texas State, Bonetti is second all-time in career home runs at Texas State with 22 round-trippers, one back of Wilson's 23 heading into the conference tournament.. This season she is posting a .241 batting average with six doubles and four home runs while maintaining a 3.22 GPA.
Though Bonetti, who plans on teaching math at the high school level when she graduates, will have completed her eligibility this season, she will still work with the team next season while completing her student-teaching coursework through the university. It is almost certain that she will see to it that the high standards of the program are maintained. "I think that the softball team at Texas State is one of the hardest working teams that we have here," Bonetti said. "We put one hundred percent into everything we do whether it is on the softball field, in the weight room, conditioning, or academics. For us, it is either one hundred percent or not at all." Life Lessons
If her academic achievements are any indication, Sharp will have little trouble in life after college. Her 3.76 GPA is the highest among Bobcat softball seniors, and last year Sharp (with fellow senior Bonetti) was named to the Southland Conference All-Academic team. On the field, she leads the team in assists with 67. "Being a collegiate athlete teaches you everything," Sharp said. "It teaches you that there can be really great moments and that there can be bad moments. You've got to take them as they come - you're not always going to be at your best but you always have to do your best anyway. I just don't think that there is any greater teacher in life than sports and school and trying to balance them." A political science major from The Woodlands, Sharp is also aware of the honor that one adds to one's program from being able to balance athletics and academics. "I think it is a very big honor to know that this program, especially the softball program, has always been really well known," Sharp said. "The seniors before us were also really good at balancing both athletics and academics, and they taught us the values that were important to this program and it means a lot to me that we are going to be the ones to pass it on to the future of the sport and the program." Sharp, who is tentatively planning on attending law school at the University of Houston in the fall, credits her career with the Bobcat softball team and her experiences as a student athlete with helping to shape the person she is today. "The four years that I have spent here have made me the person that I am today," Sharp said. "I would not be as ambitious as I am, and I probably would not be going to law school if it weren't for the fact that softball and Coach Woodard and the people that I've played with in this program have taught me to always be the best that I can be and don't ever settle for anything less." A To-Do List
Like Wilson, Griffith finds the balance between athletics and academics through time management. "It's all about time management," Griffith said about balancing sports and schoolwork. "I make a to-do list every day of my life. I sit there and I'll make a to-do list that has every little thing, such as "practice at 2:30," and weights. That's just how I get by everyday." Griffith, an outfielder from Houston, admits that there is pressure to maintain high standards both in athletics and in academics. "It's hard to stay focused when you're an athlete and a student," she said. "Just to focus on that and to show people that you can do it is my goal every year." Griffith, a fine arts major, who is looking to go into photography when she graduates, was used primarily as a pinch runner last season. She lists breaking into the starting lineup this season and steadily improving her GPA among her accomplishments at Texas State. "I think some of my accomplishments would mainly be that when I first got here I was struggling to make A's and B's and finally last semester I made a 3.54 and that was my goal - to get higher and higher GPAs," Griffith said. "On the field, my biggest accomplishments - I just recently began starting (for the team) and I just recently got a batting average and those were big accomplishments for me." One More Accomplishment
"Going out as a senior and going to regionals would be the best thing ever," Wilson said. "We went [to regionals] my sophomore year, and that was the best feeling in the world because athletically, not too many people knew who Southwest Texas State was, especially in softball. When we went to the regionals, it was great - being on TV, getting our name out there. It was a great experience, and that is my ultimate goal right now." Sharp, Bonetti, and Wilson were all members of Texas State's Southland Conference championship team in 2002. Sharp hopes to end her career with a conference championship and a regional tournament appearance. "I want a conference championship," Sharp said. "We had one my freshmen year, my very first year here. I just remember after that year, Wilson, Bone (Bonetti) and I were all saying, `I want four. I want four rings,' and we worked our butts off and we only got one and it's been really disappointing so far. Even our sophomore year we went to regionals and played there and we still didn't have a conference ring to show for it. I think that we have a lot of respect as a program in the conference, but we don't have anything to show for it because we haven't taken it to that last step yet." The Bobcats begin their hunt for a Southland Conference Tournament title Friday at 4 p.m. as they take on Northwestern State in the first-round of the championship. The tournament continues through Sunday at North Oak Park in Hammond, La.
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