Senior Capstone Brings Softball Fun to Younger Girls

Presley Harrison brought extra gloves to her softball clinic. She knew the younger girls probably didn’t own equipment yet.  

“It was an elementary and middle school all-levels clinic that was supposed to encourage young athletes to come try out softball and see how fun it was,” Harrison said. The clinic was open to NRCA girls in second through eighth grade. 

Each year, NRCA seniors journey through Senior Capstone, a service-oriented project tailored to their unique talents and gifts. Harrison’s clinic was her capstone, a natural fit. “I’ve been coaching my younger sister’s [travel] softball team for four years now, and I really like helping younger girls get into softball because I’ve been playing for 10 years now, and it’s done so much for me over the years—just for my mental health,  for my physical health, and everything about it has taught me so much,” Harrison said.  

From the outset, Harrison planned the event to maximize fun. She worked through the logistics of clinic structure, schedule, publicity, and sign-ups, even including a clinic T-shirt for participants, which she and her mom made together.  

To get the word out, she designed a clinic poster. Harrison explained, “I sent it to the varsity coaches and the middle school coach and as many people as I could think of who had a daughter or a friend who was in the right grade, just to try and get the word out as much as possible.” To sign up, parents emailed Harrison with their daughter’s name, grade, and T-shirt size. 

On clinic day, Harrison and her sister Stevie, an eighth grader who also plays on NRCA’s varsity softball team, rounded up elementary schoolers after class and played icebreakers until the middle school students were dismissed. Then they distributed the T-shirts and walked participants to the softball field.  

During the planning phase, Harrison and her varsity softball head coach, Patrick Swift, envisioned a “train like varsity athletes” experience for the participants, with the goal of inspiring young athletes to want to try out for softball in middle and high school.  

“So we did our regular warm-up, our regular stretches and line work and all that. And then we lined up to throw,” Harrison said. “And I had to bring a whole bunch of extra gloves for some of the second graders who didn’t even have equipment yet. And we got to teach them a bit how to throw.”  

The softball clinic brought together both of NRCA’s softball teams to help. Varsity softball players led the drills, and middle school players took part in the clinic alongside the novice participants, helping model skills.  

The afternoon moved fast. Participants rotated through fielding drills that focused on agility—grounders and pop flies. Then came hitting. Harrison said, “They got to hit front toss and hit off a tee and hit wiffle balls and learn how to bunt.” To close, participants ran a relay race. 

“I got so many parent emails and text messages about girls who just could not wait to come out for the middle school team one day,” Harrison said.  

Not only was Harrison leading the event, but she was also learning. “I learned a lot of managerial skills, a lot about what it actually takes to plan an event and organize it and get all of these different people—coaches and players and parents—organized. Making sure the T-shirts were right and we had enough. And how to pivot from a plan, because I had a whole plan written out, and when we got on the field, things didn’t work out the way we planned, so we had to pivot.”  

In addition to practical leadership skills, Harrison also learned the blessing of serving others with her gifts and talents. She explained the importance of giving back to a sport that has shaped her. “Softball has given me so much over the years, and I’m really sad to be finishing this year, but it was so nice to watch a little second grade girl, with the biggest smile, run up to her mom and tell her how much fun she had at the clinic and how she cannot wait to try out in sixth grade.”