Our New Year's Resolutions & Favorite Christmas Presents!

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a look at our New Year's resolutions and our favorite Christmas presents! Nicole D'Argento: New Year's resolution– Read more and opt to take the stairs more ...
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Our New Year’s Resolutions & Favorite Christmas Presents! Take a look inside for: 

New Year’s Resolutions & favorite Christmas presents!



Captains’ Corner with Maria Pandolfo



Meet freshman Megan Cooley



SAAC Service Trip to New Orleans



Captains’ Corner with Nicole D’Argento

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and found time to simply relax and reflect on all that 2012 brought you and your family. After finishing final exams, the team headed home for almost a full month to rest, re-energize, enjoy some home cooked meals, and gear up for what’s going to be an exciting Spring for Boston College Softball. Let’s take a look at our New Year’s resolutions and our favorite Christmas presents! Nicole D’Argento: New Year’s resolution– Read more and opt to take the stairs more around campus. Favorite Christmas present– iPad mini! Assistant Coach Shayne Lotito: New Year’s resolution– Continue to learn more about my field of work by reading, observing, and attending conventions that way I can provide the best coaching and training for my student-athletes and clients I train. Favorite Christmas present given– I gave my Mom a photo album with pictures of me and my siblings from when were born until today. Next to each picture, I wrote a story :-) Alana DiMaso: New Year’s resolution– To see the good in everything. Favorite Christmas present– Getting to spend the holidays with my family. CJ Chirichigno: New Year’s resolution–To smile more and enjoy the everyday things in life. Favorite Christmas present given– The best gifts I gave were cherry pies, made with love of course. Chelsea Dimon: New Year’s resolution– To get more involved in the BC service community. Favorite Christmas present– Being able to spend time at home with family and friends. Andrea Filler: New Year’s resolution– To go to church every Sunday. Favorite Christmas present- The best gift I received was not material items but the time I got to spend with my family. Tory Speer: New Year’s resolution– I don't usually make New Year’s resolutions because that's pretty much just setting myself up to fail but I am going to try to drink less Diet Coke this year. One a day, maximum. That's a tough one. Favorite Christmas present– iPad mini! Annie Sommers: New Year’s resolution– Form better relationships with my teachers. Favorite Christmas present– Coral J. Crew puffy vest. Nicole Koszowski: New Year’s resolution– To name one thing I am thankful for each day before I go to sleep. Favorite Christmas present– Spending the holiday with my parents at home. For the past three years we have gone on vacation, but because of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction to my house, we remained in New Jersey. Staying home with my friends and family was the best Christmas gift of all.

Our New Year’s Resolutions & Favorite Christmas Presents cont’d! Maria Pandolfo: New Year’s resolution– To try not to miss Mass on Sundays when we are on the road. Favorite Christmas present– Lulu Lemon clothes! Megan Cooley: New Year’s resolution– Have no regrets. Favorite Christmas present– BC apparel for the whole family. Stephanie Lord: New Year’s resolution– When faced with an opportunity that I'm not sure if I want to go for or not...take the chance and do it. Favorite Christmas present– I got a massage chair and it was wonderful! Assistant Coach Sara Olson: New Year’s resolution– To live life fully and use opportunities in a positive way. Favorite Christmas present– My sister gave me my IU jersey! Jessie Daulton: New Year’s resolution– Don't eat all of Ashley's candy from her office! Favorite Christmas present- a dune buggy from Santa Claus. Ronnie Mae Ayers: New Year’s resolution– Learn how to do a cartwheel. Favorite Christmas present– Watching my baby niece open her presents! Meg Scanlon: New Year’s resolution–To be more involved in my relatives' lives while I am at school. Favorite Christmas present- Learning family recipes by baking Christmas cookies with my family and friends. Head Coach Ashley Obrest: New Year’s resolution– To stop sweating the small stuff. Favorite Christmas present– That would be a toss up between my purple Beats by Dre and the plane tickets I bought for my parents to come out and see our home series vs. Georgia Tech.

Captains’ Corner with Maria Pandolfo This season we wanted to denote a saying that would be a motto and theme for our team. This year we picked “Find a Way.” In only three short words this saying has incredible meaning for us. Our ultimate goal is to make it into the NCAA tournament, which BC has not accomplished since 2003. We know that more than a few things have to go right for us to achieve this goal but we also know that everything doesn’t have to go perfectly. As a team collectively we need to surpass adversity, battle exhaustion, and stay focused over a long season to find a way to make it into that tournament. At times it is going to be hard to find a way but it will take making adjustments and learning to be comfortable during uncomfortable times that will separate us from everyone else. We don’t need to be flawless but we need to prepare flawlessly so that when the time comes we will be ready. Finding a way is another saying for doing whatever it takes and going that extra mile to get to the point where we want this program to be. There are 64 teams that earn bids to the NCAA tournament and for Boston College to be one of those teams would be a huge accomplishment. It might not be the easiest or most direct route to regionals but this year our team will be giving everything we have to just “find a way”…

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Getting to know Megan Cooley... Assistant coach Sara Olson sat down with freshman Megan Cooley and found out some interesting facts about the Mill Creek native. Let’s take a peak! Sara: Why did you choose BC?

Freshman Megan Cooley comes to BC from Mill Creek, Washington.

Megan: I loved the great academics and beautiful camps but moreover I saw an amazing opportunity to help impact this softball program over the next few years.

looking forward to this spring?

Megan: I’m excited to travel all over the country and see some of the great schools in the ACC, but even more so to take on the competitive schedule we have lined up for the season. Sara: What is your favorite building on campus and why? Megan: I love Bapst Library. It’s an amazing space and my home away from home when I have work to do.

Megan: Always socks on before pants and right cleat before left cleat. Sara: When you’re not playing softball, what do you like to do for fun? Megan: I like listening to music, reading, going to church, and just relaxing. Sara: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Megan: All of Europe! I’ve always wanted to experience it.

Sara: What are three things you have on you at all times?

“We don’t race for second!” -Steve Cooley

Sara: What is the best part of being a member of the BC athletic family? Megan: I love being a part of the BC family because it is a huge community. Everyone supports everyone else and there’s always somewhere to go when you need help.

Sara: What are you most

Megan: ID card, iPhone, some kind of food.

Sara: What is your biggest pet peeve?

Sara: What is your favorite quote?

Megan: Rudeness!

Megan: “We don't race for second!”- Steve Cooley

Special thank you to Megan Cooley!

Sara: Do you have any pregame superstitions?

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Community Service Trip to New Orleans with Alana DiMaso and Chelsea Dimon! This past winter break, sophomore Chelsea Dimon and I went on a community service trip to New Orleans with 20 other student-athletes for one week. While down there, we worked with the St. Bernard Project, who builds homes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. On our first day in New Orleans, we took a tour of District 9, the neighborhood most affected by the hurricane. It was shocking to see how much damage there was. Whole homes were washed away, and those that remained were falling apart. After seeing such destruction, we were ready to get to work. For the next week, we helped build a house for a woman

named Miss Rosemary, who we got to meet on the last day. The house was just framing when we arrived, so by the end of the week, we had insulated and dry walled the entire house. A typical day would be working from very early in the morning into the afternoon, then going to Tulane College to work out, which was right down the road from the Annunciation Mission where we stayed, and dinner and a group activity.

The experience that stuck with me the most was when I had the pleasure of meeting a couple who had just moved into their new home, built for them by the St. Bernard Project, seven years after Hurricane Katrina. Their story was truly heart warming. After the hurricane, they moved away for three years, trying to

get the construction of their damaged home on track. Unfortunately, like many other families, Donna and Larry had been the victims of construction fraud, but this didn’t stop them one bit. They moved back to the street where their home had been and lived in a 38 foot trailer on their land for four years, until their home was finally finished. Despite all of their hardships, Donna and Larry still were some of the happiest people I have ever met, and I will always remember how grateful they were to the St. Bernard Project. The service trip was such a great experience and I am thankful that I was able to help people in need, while also forming great friendships with fellow student-athletes. - Alana DiMaso

Captains’ Corner with Nicole D’Argento Over winter break, Ashley and the rest of the coaching staff had the team read Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence by Gary Mack with David Casstevens. So not only were we expected to work on our physical game over break, we were to work on our mental game as well. A brief synopsis: Mind Gym covers all aspects of the mental game but primarily tackles the areas of performing under pressure and overcoming adversity. Gary Mack is a sports psychologist who writes about athletes he's worked with over the years and gives examples of what exercises he did with those athletes to help them. An interesting thing about this book is that Mack writes about all different sports, but you can see how similar situations of pressure and adversity are applicable to all sports, especially softball. For me, as well as a few others on the team, this was not my first time reading this book. However, reading it this time around, it was particularly special and meaningful. As we read along, we were asked to be active readers. It was encouraged that we jot down notes in the margins and take part in some of the activities as they come along in the book. With that being said, since we've been back at the Heights, every Saturday morning (and every Saturday morning left to come) we have been meeting as a team with the coaches to do some team activities that involve the book. In our first exercise, we were asked to analyze and share our personal and performance keys to success with each other in addition to writing them on a note card that we can hold on to as a reminder of what makes us individually successful. Our second task required us to partner up and present our ideas of what a competitive, confident, controlled, committed, composed, courageous, and consistent athlete looks like respectively (shout out to Tory and Dimon for putting together a full length feature film for their presentation...it was pretty awesome). And the last exercise that we have completed so far was to individually reflect and visualize our best softball performance (could be a complete game, game winning homerun, etc) and also visualize ourselves in Oklahoma City playing in the final game of the National Championship. It has been an important experience for the team to do these exercises and share them with each other. It provides an insight into how each of us function, react to, and think about certain situations which in turn is making us grow closer as a team. Being sidelined this season and watching practice has really made me tune in more to other people on the team and I've begun to notice more and more people apply the book to their every day life and game. It has been fun to watch.

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