Wesley Wolverines Fastpitch Softball: 2018 SEASON KICK OFF

Wesley College “Great Things Await” @ Dover, Delaware. KEY LINKS: SOFTBALL HOMEPAGE ● FACEBOOK ● TWITTER ● INSTAGRAM ● coaches ● DuPont field ● admissions (plan a visit) ► softball news ► roster ► schedule ► team stats ► lineup stats ► CAC standings / leaders) ► winter camp/details. To contact the team, write Head Coach Juli Greep at Juli.Greep@wesley.edu; contact this blog via WesleySoftball@gmail.com. Other than being a parent of a past player, this blog has no association with Wesley College. This blog designed to be best viewed in a Chrome browser.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

2018 SEASON KICK OFF

2018 SEASON BEGINS...

SUNDAY: PITCHERS & CATCHERS

MONDAY: FIRST TEAM PRACTICE

Click here for the Wesley softball Instagram page

Guess who’s got balls and gloves tomorrow... our pitchers and catchers kick off the 2018 season at 3pm #gameon #wereback

Wesley Wolverine freshman #17 P/ 1B Juli Neel (Haddon Township, NJ).

Who’s ready for softball season?!?!

We are!!! Fitness test #1 in the books, bats, and balls come out Monday

From left, Wesley Wolverines
junior #8 OF Megan DiRubbio (Smyrna, DE),
senior #99 OF Lauren Hoffman (Bear, DE).

Together and one day better! #eyeontheprize

Wesley Wolverine sophomore #23 MI Brooke Retkowski (Baltimore, MD).

Click here for the Wesley College ATHLETICS CALENDAR.

WESLEY MEN'S SPORTS: Football * / Basketball / Lacrosse / Golf / Soccer /Tennis / Track & Field / Cross Country

WESLEY WOMEN'S SPORTS: Basketball / Cheer / Cross Country/ Tennis /FieldHockey / Lacrosse /Soccer / Softball/ Tennis / Track & Field ** / Volleyball

* The Wesley College football team has made 12 consecutive trip to the post-season NCAA Division III tournament. The squad has reached the national NCAA Quarterfinals in seven of the past eight seasons! ** The women's track team attained All-American status in the 4x400 meter relay last season at the NCAA D3 at the Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, Geneva, Ohio.

THE WESLEY MASCOT
is a feisty wolverine.

Now, a wolverine is nothing like a wolf. Instead, it more closely resembles a small bear. The wolverine has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to defend itself against prey many times larger than itself.

THE GRITTY WOLVERINE
is a apt mascot. The Wolverines play in a conference where most teams have undergratuate student bodies 2X and 3X the size of Wesley College.

CLICK HERE for the blog featuring the Wally Wolverine profile.

DIII fastpitch places its emphasis first and foremost on education. You can help with cost of uniforms, equipment, field improvements, team travel and accommodations.

CLICK HERE TO MAKE AN ONLINE DONATION. Under Gift Information, select “Direct Gift to Area(s) of My Choice” and choose “softball” in the popup box.

No contribution is too small. For further information, please contact Head Coach Juli Greep at Juli.Greep@wesley.edu or write Juli Greep, Wesley College Softball, 120 N State St, Dover, DE 19901.

This is the last season that the Wesley Wolverines will play in the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC). A new NCAA league is being formed for the 2018 season which will include Wesley, Neumann, Cabrini, Immaculata, Marywood, Marymount (no softball team),Gwenned Mercy, and Arcadia. (Wesley football will remain in the NJAC.)

CAPITAL ATHLETIC

CONFERENCE (CAC)...

● CAC homepage

● CAC softball

● CAC softball news

● CAC Facebook

● CAC Twitter

►SCHEDULE

►STANDINGS

► TEAM STATS

► PLAYER STATS

►INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

CAC SOFTBALL TEAMS

■ Southern Virginia

Undergrads: 800

■ Wesley College

Undergrads: 1,384

■ Penn State Harrisburg

Undergrads: 4,200

■ York (PA)

Undergrads: 4,288

■ Mary Washington

Undergrads: 4,357

■ Frostburg State

Undergrads: 4,884

■ Christopher Newport

Undergrads: 4,930

■ Salisbury

Undergrads: 7,861

NCAA DIVISION III SOFTBALL

THERE IS A TOTAL OF 415+ NCAA DIVISION III COLLEGES. 19% are public institutions and 81% are private institutions. They compete in in 43 different conferences. On average, there are just 160 female athletes per Division III college. Only 3.7% of high school players play softball at any NCAA level and of those, 2.1% play on a Division III team.

● NCAA

● D3 SOFTBALL

● APPROVED BAT LIST

● NCAA SOFTBALL RULES, including updates, approved new rules & new experimental rules. Download rules book for FREE for PDF, epub or Kindle (mobi)/ $7.80 paper.

RULES:

● 2016 / 2017 NCAA rules (PDF)

● 2017 Experimental Rules FAQ

● 2017 Approved

Experimental Rules

● 2018 and 2019

Major Rules Changes

LIKE STATS? NCAA posts online quite a variety of current and past year statistics for teams and individuals.

► CLICK HERE to find INDIVIDUAL PLAYER or TEAM STATS by year... that's ANY player, ANY team, almost ANYWHERE.

► CLICK HERE for shortcut links to ALL NCAA ONLINE STATS.

NATIONAL RANKINGS. It is not uncommon to find one, two or even more colleges or universities on the Wesley Wolverines schedule that are ranked among the best D3 softball teams in the nation!

D3 NATIONAL RANKINGS

► NCAA SOFTBALL RANKINGS

► NFCA SOFTBALL RANKINGS

SOFTBALL VIDEOS: BY THE NUMBERS!

INCREDIBLE CHALLENGE OF PLAYING FASTPITCH SOFTBALL

CLICK HERE OR ON the small video box BELOW for VIDEO summary...

ESPN analysis...

Softball: bursts of speed, action, forcing attention, fast reactions

According to ESPN, here is college softball by the numbers...

► SOFTBALL FIELD is (7,200 sq. ft.) 43% size of baseball field (16,700 sq. ft.) -- base paths 60 ft. vs. baseball's 90 ft. -- which means every player is constantly on the move, potentially being part of every play, while all the action is within easy purview of every spectator's seat.

► SOFTBALL PITCHING RUBBER is just 43 ft. from home vs. baseball's 60.5 ft., but a windmill pitcher releases the ball 37 ft. away to hurl a ball that can reach the plate as fast as 0.35 seconds later (faster than it takes a 100 mph baseball from its 55 ft. release point to reach its batter).

► SOFTBALL BATTER can have just 0.350 seconds to locate and identify a pitch, compared to 0.395 seconds for hard ball (and, then, she has as little as 0.025 seconds to decide whether to swing!)

► SOFTBALL BATTED BALL can come off the bat at speeds up to 100 mph. A shortstop may have only 0.61 seconds to react.

► SOFTBALL INFIELDERS facing shorter base paths must get the batted ball to first in less than 3.2 seconds. That's more than a full second faster than how a typical major league must successfully perform to fire a baseball to first (4.3 seconds).

► SOFTBALL SLAP-HITTERS can reach speeds of 19 mph, racing home to first in as little as 2.66 seconds. A third base fielder can take no more than 1.5 seconds (or throw faster than 100 mph) to record that out.

► SOFTBALL BASE STEALERS -- despite softball rules against leading off -- can get from first to second in as little as 3 seconds. On average, a softball catcher must react 1/10 of a second faster than her major league counterpart.

► MORE VIDEOS ON SOFTBALL'S CHALLENGES…

■ Movement of softball

■ The difficulty in hitting a softball

■ Analysis: baseball vs. softball hitting

► 2018 FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE

Ashley Royer

► 2018 FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE

Brandi Dalious

► 2018 BEST JUNIOR D3 SOFTBALL

(Hero Sports national award)

Ashley Royer

► 2018 FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Ashley Royer

► 2018 SHIRLEY WENTWORTH AWARD

Lauren Hoffman

► 2018 MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Abbey Mayse

► 2018 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Dori Loukopoulos

► 2018 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF YEAR

Megan DiRubbio

► 2018 OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF YEAR

Brandi Dalious

► 2018 PLAYER OF YEAR

Ashley Royer

► 2017 NFCA ALL-ATLANTIC:

Ashley Royer

► 2017 ALL-CONFERENCE:

Ashley Royer,Megan DiRubbio

► 2016-2017 NFCA ALL-AMERICA SCHOLAR (3.5 GPA during the full academic year): Ashley Royer

► 2017 WESPY TEAM ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

(3.35 GPA highest among all Wesley teams):Wolverine softball squad

► 2017 WESPY FEMALE

TEAM OF YEAR:

Wolverine softball squad

► 2017 WESPY BREAKOUT ATHLETE:

Ashey Royer

► 2017 TEAM OFFENSIVE

PLAYER OF YEAR:

Ashey Royer

► 2017 TEAM MOST IMPROVED:

Megan DiRubbio

► 2017 TEAM ROOKIE OF YEAR:

Brooke Retkowski

► 2017 & 2016 NFCA ALL-AMERICAN SCHOLAR ATHLETES:

Lauren Hoffman, Ashley Royer

► 2016 TEAM ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:

Ashey Royer

► 2017 ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE:

Megan DiRubbio, Lauren Hoffman, Allison Mills,Brooke Retkowski, and Ashley Royer

► 2016 ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE:

Lauren Hoffman, Ashley Royer

► 2016 CAC ALL-ACADEMIC:

Lauren Hoffman, Ashley Royer

► 2016 FALL DEAN'S LIST

(3.33-3.99 GPA):

Megan DiRubbio, Ashley Royer, Lauren Hoffman, Brooke Retkowski

PHOTO ABOVE: Sophomore #2 3B/SS Karina Cardona (Cooper City, FL).

Admissions FAQs

CLICK HERE FOR A WOLVERINE RECRUIT'S CHECK LIST!

SOFTBALL PROSPECTS, PLEASE CONSIDER the competitive and educational rewards of D3 sports!

Click here for NFCA DIVISION III 2018 TOP 25 SOFTBALL POLL.

Last season (2017), the Wesley Wolverines' tough schedule included two of these Top 25 teams: #1 Virginia Wesleyan and #14 Christopher Newport Captains!

DIII ADVANTAGES!

♦ CLICK HERE for the July 2015 blog post about the advantages of the DIII sports program.

DIII BENEFITS!

♦ CLICK HERE for a second, similar February 2016 blog post promoting DIII sports program.

DIII NUMBERS!

♦ CLICK HERE for the February 2015 blog entry about division III college athletic stats; # of schools, teams, undergrads, etc.

PATH TO SUCCESS!

♦ CLICK HERE for the February 2016 blog entry about why successful women have more often played sports.

YOUTUBE VIDEO!

♦ CLICK HERE for Eric Fischer, former Denison swimmer, discussing the process of choosing between division one and division three schools for academics and athletics.

TELL US ABOUT YOU!

♦ CLICK HERE to submit a softball prospect questionnaire form.

CONTACT THE HEAD COACH

♦ Don’t be shy. Write Head Coach Juli Greep @ Juli.Greep@wesley.edu about your fastpitch softball experience.

♦ SOFTBALL CAMP, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18: SOLD OUT FOR SEVERAL YEARS IN A ROW!! Every Fall, a Wolverine Softball Skills & Prospect Camp is held on the Wesley campus. The camp is designed for skilled softball players to advance their level of play and showcase their abilities for Wesley college coaches. High school freshman-to-seniors are welcome.

PLAN AHEAD to attend this year's Wolverine Softball Skills & Prospect Camp on Saturday, November 18 at Wesley West Field House and the DuPont Softball Field, 511 Mary Street, Dover, DE.

CLICK HERE for the sign-up brochure.

CLICK HERE for 186 photos from the 2016 camp.

►►PROFILES!◄◄

Players: update and/or create a new profile. Freshmen: please introduce yourself to our fastpitch fans with your profile!

Wolverines have an official "bio" as part of the roster, while each player may also have a blog "profile" that provides more personal information. The player's profile may list softball achievements, but also can let softball fans know about the player's special interests and hobbies, awards, and accomplishments, friends, family, and hometown as well as her favorite pictures from on and off the field.

A profile is easy to complete. Just follow the flexible profile form at https://sites.google.com/site/wolverinesprofiles

Players can CHANGE or update or submit their PROFILE at ANY TIME during the year by writing to this blog at WesleySoftball@gmail.com.