Lessons Learned From Travel Ball | The Change Up With Sierra Romero Ep2

[Welcome to The Change Up. I’m your host, Sierra Romero, and today’s episode is going to be fantastic. If you are a travel ball parent or a travel ball player, I’m hoping that I answer any and all questions that honestly I’ve gotten throughout my entire career of not only college ball, but all the way through pro. I feel like I get a lot of the same questions. So, I just want to tell you guys more about my experience, things that helped me, things that I think helped shape me into the player that I was at Michigan.

But then also help shape me into the woman that I am today. So stay tuned. This is going to be a great show and I hope you guys like it. I’m Sierra Romero and this is my brand new show, The Change Up with Sierra Romero.

All right, let’s start with travel ball. So for those of you who may not know, I’m from California. Specifically, Murrieta, California is where I grew up. I was born in San Diego. But my softball travel ball experience was California-based. And I know a lot of people are like, “Well, California is one of the softball hubs.” Definitely. I feel like it’s changed and it’s grown a lot throughout the years. There’s other hubs now that also have great softball experience and a lot of talent, but I come from the SoCal area and I played for the Orange County Batbusters.

I played with Mike Stith and Gary Haning. And I played for a few other travel ball teams, but by far the Batbusters is the organization, the coaches that really helped shape me into the player that I am today. Also can’t leave out my parents. They played a huge, significant role in my development. But also in the type of person that I was off the field because that also translated to who I was on the field.

So, props to them, too. All right, back to Orange County Batbusters. So, the Batbusters are a very talented organization. They are known as one of the best, if not the best, travel organization out there. They have been one of the best or the top for a very long time. And so, going into it, I knew that I wanted to be challenged. And it was something that I spoke to my parents about, but I also spoke to the travel coaches about, you know, was I ready for it?

Was I a player who was going to be able to come in and handle that kind of situation? And I think that is where for me it really took off. It was I know what I want and I want to be challenged more. I wanted more work. I wanted higher expectations. I wanted a little bit of a tougher process. I felt like I had outgrown my surroundings. I felt like the girls that I was playing against and playing with, they weren’t quite matching me.

Maybe a couple of them were, but I felt like I was passing up a lot of people or a lot of people didn’t have the same mindset as me. So, I do think that it’s very important to be realistic with yourself on the type of player that you are. Everybody’s going to be different and that’s okay. I was somebody who ate, slept, and breathed softball 24/7. Like, I loved it. And I knew that was going to be my key to college.

At the time, pro ball wasn’t really in the back of my mind. It wasn’t really an option when I was younger. So, for me, this was how am I going to get to college? And honestly too, like my parents, specifically my dad, made it very clear from a young age that if I wanted to go to college, like it was going to come out of my own pocket. They were not going to be able to afford to help me get there.

So, I knew that I had to have good grades. I knew that I had to be good at softball. So, I just knew that athletically and also education-wise, I had to have the full package. And so that way, you know, if I didn’t get a full ride athletically, I could also, you know, apply for some type of academic scholarships, anything that would be able to help me. So for me, school and softball, that was it.

That was all I did all the time. Don’t get me wrong, had time for friends, made time for them. And still had so much fun in high school, but I knew what my goals were. And I think that is such a beautiful thing because I was able to sit down with myself and my parents at a young age and figure out what it was that I wanted. What do I want to get out of softball?

And everybody’s experience can be different. You can be somebody who’s like, you know what, I don’t love it in that way and I don’t want to put that much effort into it and I’m decent at it. So, you can still go and get a partial scholarship or maybe even a scholarship, but maybe for a smaller school, just a school that’s not going to have as much practice time, as many stressful situations and just all the things that really come with high-level softball.

But that’s just you being more self-aware. So, for me, that wasn’t the case. I wanted everything and I wanted all the challenges.

And so with the Batbusters, I actually went from 14U straight to 18U. I never played 16U. I did an immediate jump. I did that jump with two of my really good friends in travel ball. We jumped to the 18U team at the exact same time, which was nice because I didn’t jump into 18U as the only young one there. I got to have two of my friends there with me. But I’d be lying if I said I was not absolutely terrified.

I think almost every single player on that team when I got to that 18U Batbusters team was committed to huge schools to UCLA, to Michigan, to Florida, to Arizona. Like when I got to my first 18U Batbusters practice, I felt completely out of place. I wasn’t scared in the sense of like I can’t do this. It was more so just scary because these girls were older than me. More mature, more all the things.

And the way that they practiced, and then once I got to see them in a game—it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. They were just really well-oiled machines. Our practices were hard. I feel like I almost looked forward more to games because the games felt easier to me. And I think that just goes to show why practice is so important. Practice is meant to challenge you. It can be fun, don’t get me wrong, but I had more fun at the games than I did sometimes at practice, especially if we weren’t practicing well.

You know, we had conditioning, if we messed up, there were just certain things you had to do. And so there was this like sense of accountability that was really developed during that time in my travel ball span. And for me, it was really just owning when I messed up, but also working to get better. Not letting something negative that happened, whether it was practice or a game, dictate everything from that point on.

Because the second that we as softball players and just athletes let one thing take over everything, I mean, softball can be extremely mental and it can be extremely mentally draining. So, for me, that was something that I really, really learned and took away from that 18U experience was these girls, they just knew what their goals were, what they wanted to accomplish. They knew that they wanted to go to their university and play, and they weren’t going to let anybody stop them.

But what was fun was we could sit there at practice and we would challenge each other. Like, I remember it was Cheyenne Coyle. She was at shortstop. Amazing infielder. And I’m at second base and she’s fielding. I’m fielding. And we just keep going, keep going. We’re getting all these reps. We’re diving everywhere. It’s hot. We’re exhausted. We’re like sweating. And at some point it turns into a competition of who can field the most ground balls without like messing up.

But what’s funny is nobody said that. It wasn’t like a verbal like, “Oh, let’s go until you mess up” type of thing. We just were both so competitive that if I messed up, like I wanted to keep going. Like I wasn’t going to let that be my last one. I wanted to field however many I wanted in my head in a row or I wanted to make a diving play or I just had these expectations.

But so did Cheyenne. She was the same way. She’s like making these amazing, beautiful backhand plays, plays up the middle, spinning throw. Like she was just a great infielder and great role model for me to look up to on the defensive side on the infield. And I watched everything she did. I would try to mimic what she would do. And I think that’s also a reason why I was able to grow and get better as an athlete because I didn’t have an ego.

I didn’t look at other players that were better than me and say, “Oh, well, I’m better.” No, they were better. I want to be like them. I want to be just as good as she is. And if I want to be just as good as her, I need to be able to do what she does. And so, I would learn from her. I would ask questions or if I would mess up, there were plenty of times that Cheyenne would come over to me before Mike even had a chance of coming over and correcting what it was that I was doing wrong.

She was older than me and she already kind of had her system that worked for her and she knew how to explain things. So, I’d mess up on, let’s say, a backhand. Maybe it was my drop step that was wrong or like I wasn’t getting my hip in a certain position. She would come over and be like, “Hey, like this is what you need to do. This is what it should look like.” And then she would look at Mike and be like, “Okay, hit her again. Hit her another one.” So, it’s almost like the player becomes a coach in that sense. And I think that the best players out there are players that know what their body is doing and know how to coach it. Not saying you need to become this, you know, college-coach-level type player, whatever, but like you need to know what it is that you’re doing and why. I think nowadays we lose so much of that athletic ability with a lot of these athletes. Not that we want them to; they just turn into robots.

It’s like monkey see, monkey do, but it’s like not why am I doing this? So, I can go work with a girl or work in a lesson and I’m like, “Hey, this is what I need you to do and they’ll do it, but then when they mess up and do it wrong again, I’m like, “Hey, well, what did you do on that one?” I don’t know. What do you mean you don’t know? Well, what did you feel? How did your body feel? Or if it’s a good hit, I’m like, “Well, how’d you feel on that one? Like, did that one feel better?” Like it’s so important that you have the ability as a young athlete to explain what you’re feeling that feels wrong in your swing or defense or whatever it is you’re doing, but then also acknowledge what’s feeling right because whatever is feeling right, we’re trying to mimic that motion every single time over and over again till it becomes muscle memory until we get to a game. And that’s just our first instinct is to do that specific movement because you’ve trained it so much and you’ve trained it correctly that your margin for error just starts to get smaller and smaller. Doesn’t mean you’re never going to make an error. I wish it were that simple, but that’s not the case. KNOWING YOUR BODY AND YOUR GAME So the idea is we need athletes now, right now in 2026, that are able to identify what they do well and what they do poorly and fix what it is that they do poorly, but also acknowledge what they do right and mimic that over and over again. So if you’re at a lesson and all you’re doing is whatever coach says and you don’t know why, that’s a problem. You should be able to stop the lesson and ask, “Why am I doing this?” Or ask, “How does this benefit me?” or, “What should I feel here? Because I don’t feel it.” You should be able to have that open dialogue. Because if you can talk about those things, you are going to become not only physically a better player, more athletic, but so much more educated and strong mentally. If you know what you’re supposed to do for something to feel right or get the result you want, you’re less likely to go into those slumps. Don’t really love to talk about slumps. I don’t fully believe in them, but you’re less likely to go into those slumps because you’re just you’re so mentally strong and educated and know what it is that you need to do that you’re going to work to execute it rather than just guessing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what I’m feeling. Don’t get me wrong, that still sometimes happens. You may not know necessarily in that moment, but you’re able to figure it out whether by looking at video of your swing or your fielding or just by having a conversation. So, I definitely want to challenge this newer generation of athletes to be more educated on themselves. It’s not even necessarily being educated on everybody else around you and just softball in general. It’s knowing yourself, knowing your body, knowing what you need, but knowing how to get to those results. Because if you at least know that, you have that education piece. That’s so rare nowadays. I see so many robots. I don’t see a lot of athletes. ATHLETES, NOT ROBOTS And I can tell you right now from talks that I’ve had with college coaches, they want athletes. Okay? That doesn’t mean, “Oh, well, my exit velocity is 80-something in high school,” right? Cool. But your exit velo is only that if you square up the ball. So how often can you be an athlete and square up the ball? Because it’s great that you have the ability to have an 80 mph exit velo, but that’s only when you square up the ball. And if you square up the ball once out of every 100 swings, that’s not looking too good. Okay? So we want to be realistic, too, with what we are able to bring to the table. Well, that’s great that you have an 80 mph exit velo, but how consistently are you doing that off of live pitching, not just off of a tee, front toss, or someone throwing the ball right down the middle? Because those are where the athletes come in. Same thing on defense. Okay, cool. Defensively, you know, you can field the ball. Okay, you can field the ball right at you. Are you athletic enough to move when a ball doesn’t go the right way? The way that you visually saw it, it hits something in the dirt, bounces up. Can you athletically get out of that position you’re in and put yourself in a better position to field the ball? Can you field the ball on the run and your momentum’s taking you a completely different way and throw across your body? That is athleticism. And so much of that has been lost throughout travel ball because a lot of these athletes have just become more robots. So, I really want to challenge you to be more of that athlete because I think that is what made the difference for me. I could play a million different positions when I was younger, and I wanted to be that really good utility player. I think that’s something that is so important to remember: your ability to play multiple positions, especially now with NIL and everything else going on, is going to be huge for you. You’ve got transfers coming in who may be older than you, who have more experience, and here you are coming in as a freshman. You don’t want to automatically lose your spot or your opportunity to play because you are one-dimensional. So, if you can be that ultimate utility player, especially now in 2026, I think that is going to take you so much further. So, focus more on that athleticism because that’s honestly what I focused on when I was younger. Yes, being stronger. I had a strength and conditioning coach. I was getting good instruction for hitting and for defense for my lessons, but I was working on it regularly. Again, I understand if I was maybe a different beast because I truly did love softball. When I was younger, you didn’t have to, you know, pull my arm to get me to go out there and play catch, to field, to work on my craft. I found fun ways to do it, whether it was with Wiffle ball, water balloon fights, wall ball competitions with my sister, and little do you know, doing those things are working on softball skills in just a more fun, you know, different type of interactive way. So definitely want to challenge you guys to be more athletic and more athletes, not so much robots, okay? Because that’s what the college coach is looking for. Because, too, you come into their school, they might make some changes. And somebody who’s one-dimensional is going to have a really hard time when someone comes in and wants to make changes as opposed to somebody who’s educated on themselves and knows that they can control their body and certain movements with hitting, with defense, with throwing. So, when new information comes to you, guess what? You’re going to be an athlete and you’re going to know how your body moves and you’re going to be able to execute what it is your coach wants you to do. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen right away. Might take you more reps, more practice, but that’s okay. So, that’s definitely something that the Batbusters taught me was to be that ultimate utility and just be athletic. So, no matter where I went, didn’t matter. I felt confident no matter where I was going because I felt like I was just an athlete and I could just make it happen. And that level of confidence too, not only helps you on the field on defense, but it helps you in the batter’s box because in the box, you never fully feel out of it because you feel like you’re just capable of so much more. And so when you are messing up and you’re striking out and things aren’t going your way, instead of you getting down, you’re immediately like it’s just a matter of time, like I’m going to figure it out. And you’re not worried. You know, there might be like a oh man, this sucks type of feeling, but you’re not actually worried about getting to the result that you want to get to. So, that’s one thing that the Batbusters really taught me. DISCIPLINE AND DAILY WORK But they also just taught me discipline. Again, when you’re playing with people and you have teammates and people around you that uplift you, it is hard to not be disciplined because when everyone else around you is doing the right thing and doing the things that they need to do to reach their goals and get what they want, you don’t want to be the person who’s dragging other people down. You don’t want to be the person who isn’t doing what they’re supposed to do. And now everybody on your team is up here and you’re down here playing catch-up because you’re not doing what it takes. And so that’s why to putting yourself around the right people and the right team and the right coaches is so important. But a lot of that also takes you looking within and being like, okay, well, what do I want out of this experience? Do I want this serious team aspect where I’m going to yes, I’m going to grow, but this is going to be hard. This is going to be challenging. I’m going to hear things I don’t want to hear. Whether it’s that I have so much room that I need to improve and I’m not where I need to be or like do I need someone to sugarcoat it because you may not get that on that, you know, that gold team, that A team. So, you have to also be realistic with yourself. And I think that we’ve lost that a lot too now is right now I talk to any and all parents and they’re like, “Yeah, my kid’s a D1 athlete.

They’re going to go play here and they’re going to go win a national championship. They’re going to be an All-American.” And then they’re like, “Yeah, so do you think she should be training more than twice a week?” Oh, boy. Like, yeah, definitely. And then I go and I come across these athletes who are like, “Oh, yeah, you know, I work on this drill like every other, you know, every other week or whatever it might be.” And let’s say it’s something as simple as like short hops. And I’m like, “Oh, okay. So, you’re like perfect at short hops then. You work on it like only once in a while. So, you’re like really good at short hops. Your glove work is like top-tier.” like better than the pros. And they’re like, “Well, no.” And I’m like, “Oh, so then why are you only working on it every so often?” Because the pros work on it every single day. The pros work on those little things every single day. But that’s the difference between the good and the great is they work on the little things. They perfect it. So that mentality started for me in travel ball because I knew I wanted to be great. And the people around me that were also great were honest. They were honest about what it was going to take and I was honest with myself when I was doing the right things and when I wasn’t, you know, when I wasn’t taking the time to perfect my craft versus when I was I had completely different results on the weekends. But I was also willing to look at myself and be like, did I do enough this week? Oh, I didn’t hit very well. Well, you know, I only made time for, you know, myself to hit twice this week. I should have done more or I should have worked on this specific drill so I felt good going into the weekend. But I was able to put aside that ego that we talk about. We all have it. I was able to put aside my ego and look at what it is I need to do to make this better. THE TRANSITION TO MICHIGAN And so transitioning from Batbusters going into Michigan. When I got to Michigan, it just felt like a level up from the Batbusters, but it still had the same discipline that was required, the high expectations, the schedule was still hard. You know, the only thing that was different was now I’m adding college-level classes and a full schedule of classes and then, you know, even more strength training than I’ve ever done. But what’s funny is even on that strength training side, when it came to lifting, I already had experience in it. So, I wasn’t like so sore that it made practice impossible. I was still sore because it was hard, but it didn’t take me out like it takes out other people. Like I saw it take out some of my teammates, not because, you know, it’s not their fault. They they didn’t know. They didn’t do that much. So going into it, it was like, “Dang, I’m sore. I can’t really walk.” And, you know, it’s affecting my practice. And so for me, I felt overly prepared when I got to Michigan. The softball side for me when I got to Michigan was the easy part. The hard part for me was the time management with school because normally in high school I have school, but then there’s so much time in between before I go to anything that’s softball-related, right? Like before I go to practice or whatever, I have time. Whereas at Michigan it was school. Sometimes I’d have to lift in between classes, find time to eat, get to practice, be there on time, or sometimes depending on my class schedule, I might be running late. So I had to make sure I had something packed to eat otherwise I wouldn’t eat for the rest of that practice. And you couldn’t just take off a day it felt like at practice because you’re trying to earn a spot. And that was the thing is like I knew that right as a freshman coming in. I was not oblivious to the fact that anybody could play anywhere and everybody was good because I had that experience in travel ball. I had that experience on the batbusters. I went to a team where I wasn’t the best and I went to a team where everybody else was already set, ready to go to whatever university they were going to go to and they were damn good. And so I had to try to meet them at that level instead of just being defeated like I’m not good enough. Boohoo. Poor me. So I get to Michigan, I go to second base. There’s an All-American playing at second base and I’m like, “Oh boy. Well, I need to show the coaches I can play other positions.” Again, ego aside, do I want to play second base? Yes. There’s somebody there that’s already proven herself who is an All-American. And so, I’m gonna probably just assume that she’s probably got second base locked down. So, I need to be the one to show that I can play multiple positions so I don’t end up on the bench. I didn’t care where I was going to play. I just didn’t want to be on the bench. So, here I am throwing myself in the outfield, throwing myself at different positions on the infield, like positions I really hadn’t even played before. And I was like, whatever. Like, I’m going to do whatever it takes. And so I also believe that showing that willingness and showing how I can put my own ego aside because it doesn’t matter what I did in travel ball. Now I’m going in as a freshman. I have everything to prove. There’s no stats on me at the college level. There’s no nothing. These other girls that have been there have earned certain things and they’ve, you know, got these accolades and all the things. Like I’m here to prove something now. And so for me it was about how can I help the team? And so when I got to Michigan, I felt more than prepared on that softball side because I had that experience in travel ball, but I also always had that mentality of like I was never bigger than the team or never bigger than anybody else. It was I can’t win a game by myself just like everybody else on the team can’t win a game by themselves. It’s going to take the whole team collectively. And so when I got there, I was just ready to put my head down and work. And when I got to Michigan, it was all about family. It was all about working hard, representing the Block M. I mean, I played for Hutch, so it was very clear what the expectations were, what the requirements were, and the way in which you needed to carry and hold yourself. Lucky for me, those expectations did not scare me because I already had them from travel ball and high school. A lot of girls sometimes come in and it’s like whiplash. They’re like, “Oh my gosh, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this.” To me, that was my life. I have high expectations for myself. I have high standards for myself. So, you putting those standards and expectations on me don’t do anything other than motivate me to want to reach that level if I’m not already there, you know, and I want to make my team or my coach proud or my parents proud and I want to make sure I’m representing myself in that way. And so, honestly, the softball side, like I said, it felt easy when I first got there because I was so overly prepared. But again, certain things were still hard. Yes, you know, our conditioning tests and practices were still exhausting and all the things, especially when you add school and you add trying to have a social life and all the things in college while wanting to have that full college experience. It’s hard and it’s a lot. I think about it nowadays and I was just talking to my teammates about it when I was back at Michigan recently and I was like, how did we do that? Like when you look back and think on it because you’re just in go mode at that point in college. You’re just like go, go, go. This is my list for today. These are all the things I have to do. The classes, I have to have these essays done. I got to be ready for this exam. Like, oh yeah, and we’re traveling and we’re leaving on a Thursday. We come back Sunday night at midnight and I got class Monday morning and that one project is due or that one essay is due. Like, there was so much. And because you were in go mode, but you also just knew that the job had to be done and you had to figure out ways to get it done. It made it fun. It made it exciting. And it was a lot at times, but again, like I knew what I was getting myself into and I had already started prepping myself in travel ball because the people that I surrounded myself with were the same type of people I was going to be around when I was at the University of Michigan. And I knew that. And so for me, I really think that preparation has been key to so much of my success because when I hear from Hutch or Bonnie like, “Hey, this isn’t acceptable.

You’re not doing this right or this is bad. This needs to be better. I’m not playing the poor me card. I’m not mad. I’m listening and I’m thinking about the things that I’ve done and also looking within. And if I disagree, guess what? We talk about it. We’re going to be grown women. We’re going to talk about it. I’m not going to sit there be mad at you, who’s my coach, who I respect, and I need to make this thing go and be mad about it and then go cry to my parents about it.

No. Yeah, I might go talk to my parents about it. You know what’s funny is if my parents at any point started to be on my side, I’d be like, “Well, no, no, no, no.” Like, I do need to be better at that because it wasn’t meant, it’s never meant to be parents versus coaches or me versus my coach. I can take constructive criticism and roll with it and figure it out and figure out a way to be better and communicate with my coach on how I can be better.

And that’s again where that ego and being able to take, like I said, constructive criticism is huge because if you cannot do that, not only will college ball be hard for you, life will be hard for you. You’re always going to be the victim, you’re always going to think everybody else owes you something, and they don’t. Your work ethic, your attitude, and the way you treat people are going to help you along the way.

And if those things are bad, I don’t know why many things would really fall in your direction. And so when I got to Michigan and I had the amazing four years that I had, not only just my life experience, but what I did was pretty cool and pretty amazing. And it’s fun for me to look back at because I’m like, how the heck did I do that? But Michigan specifically, it just amplified and really showed me the type of woman that I wanted to be after I left the university.

When I went from high school to Michigan, I knew that the expectations and everything were just going to get higher and it was going to be harder, but I was embracing that challenge and I was excited for it and I knew that I might fall short in some areas, but that I was willing to work on myself to get better.

LEADERSHIP AND LIFE LESSONS

But then when I was at Michigan and just being around Hutch, her leadership, her fight and her voice for female athletes and for women in general was something that inspired me. It was something that made me want to be better. And then her challenge for me always with leadership and being able to help my teammates and read my teammates and just be a better teammate for my teammates was something that was like a beautiful thing to me because that was the biggest thing that I had to learn at Michigan was how can I be a better leader?

How can I help people around me? How can I elevate people more? Because I’ve always been more so caught up in okay, I need to do this for me, for me, for me. And this is what I need to do so I can have this batting average or this whatever. And so I had to start looking more externally rather than internally and think how can I do X, Y, and Z to make everybody else better.

Whether it’s holding myself to a higher standard, yeah, that means sometimes that you can’t mess up. Not saying you can’t mess up in softball. You just can’t mess up with other life things outside. There’s just a little less wiggle room for you to mess up. And there’s pressure that comes with that. But again, pressure is a privilege. And I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world because it made me who I am today and it made me the strong woman that I am today.

So I challenge if you’re a parent watching this or you’re a player watching this, sit with yourself and write down what it is you want to accomplish. And then off to the side of that, write down how am I going to accomplish this? This is what I want to accomplish, but then how am I going to accomplish it? And then hold yourself to that standard. And if you want to share that with a friend of yours who’s on your team or you want to share it with your parents so they can hold you to that standard.

So when you’re like, “I don’t want to go play catch today,” and one of your parents says, “Well, you need to go play catch for like 10 minutes. Got to avoid arm injury,” whatever. Now, as a kid, I get it. But you can’t get mad at them and be like, “They always want me to go practice. They want me to whatever.” No, you told them this was your standard. This is what you want to accomplish and this is how you’re going to accomplish it and they’re there to help you reach that.

They’re not trying to nag you. They want to see you reach whatever goals it is that you’re setting for yourself. So, I definitely challenge you guys to have that like accountability partner. Again, could be a sibling, could be a friend, a teammate, a parent, whoever it is that you want that to be. But I just challenge you to set some standards and some goals for yourself and then write out how you think you will execute those and how you think you can get to that end goal.

Because that’s what I did. I knew what I wanted and I had to figure out what is my plan to get what I want. And I’m going to do those things. I’m going to show up every single day and give 100% of what I have. Even if all I have is 50%. At practice, right? I’m going to show up and I’m not going to get mad if someone else is doing better than me.

I’m going to use that as fuel to the fire to be better. And I’m going to put my ego aside and watch someone who’s doing something or is better at something than me and figure out how can I do that. I’m going to ask questions. You know, I’m not going to just throw pity parties for myself. And it takes a lot of self-reflection. And I’d be lying if I said it just happened all at once.

There were times where I would have setbacks or I would be way too like internally in my head. And that was hard. But I would definitely say it starts in travel ball because don’t get me wrong, you can get to college and then build those characteristics and build all that stuff. You just might miss out on certain opportunities if you’re not already in that mindset. Again, it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to do those things.

I just went into it already knowing those things, already having those expectations, and already having that discipline. So it made the softball side way more relaxed for me. So really the hard part for me was school. Like I had to figure out the time management with school and softball. And that was the hardest part for me. And softball was my escape. Softball was my safe space. Even though I was competing for a position and competing against these All-Americans and these players that have done amazing things, I wanted to come in and have an impact.

And so for me, put the ego aside, be disciplined, and have your standards, and don’t settle. You know, you’re going to be around people that are going to possibly not be doing the things that you need to be doing to get what you want. And hopefully, you’ll start to kind of move some pieces around and get the right people around you. Because when you have the right group and the right people around you, it makes everything you want to accomplish so much easier.

It makes it more fun because you’re not fighting against other people. It’s like, hey, this is what we’re trying to do. And then you don’t have this group of people pulling you back or pulling everybody else back. Instead, you guys are all collectively going in the same direction together. So having the right people around you is so important. And I just challenge you guys to really try and be disciplined. The hardest thing is to be disciplined.

It really is. And be committed to the process and try to enjoy the process and try to not be so outcome-oriented. You can be mad about an outcome. I’m not saying don’t be mad if you’re 0-for-10. I’d be pissed off too. But what am I going to do to fix that? Sit here and mope about it or am I going to go swing? Am I going to go work on the fact that I can’t hit this pitch or I can’t hit in this count?

I get too like mentally in my head when I’m in this count or if this thing goes wrong. You only work your way out of those things by putting in work just like anything and everything in life. So remember, we want athletes. We don’t want robots. And honestly, in travel ball and how you treat the game and how you prepare yourself at the travel ball level can really help set you up to make college feel smooth and effortless when it comes to that transition from travel ball to college ball.

So again, athletes, not robots, and put in the work. And then allow yourself to fail because who cares? It’s way cooler to try and mess up and fail than it is to be somebody who acts like they don’t care and you’re constantly failing. It doesn’t look good. It doesn’t. I promise you. Okay. Try. Fail. I have so much more respect for that. Be all about something and go all-in.

So, I hope that you guys enjoyed this podcast. I had a great time filming it for you. If you guys have any questions, make sure you respond. Send me messages on Instagram. I’ll be checking them. Respond under the video or in the comment section. Let us know what you might want to hear next. I look forward to having some guests on in the future. And this is going to be really fun.

So, good luck with travel ball season. Good luck if you’re a college player. And if you’re a parent, hey, it’s hard, but all you can do is be there for them, support them, and hold them accountable. Because that’s definitely one thing I will never not thank my parents for doing, always holding me accountable and being there for me. So, I hope you guys enjoyed the podcast. I’m your host, Sierra Romero, and this is The Change Up.

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