Netherlands & Riptide

LIVE STREAMING GAMES!!!
For the first time in NPF history, the Philadelphia Force will make
available a live video stream of every Force home game. Fans from anywhere
on earth with an internet connection now will be able to see the Force in
action, and more importantly they will get to see the greatest players in
the game! So visit the Force website for further details of how to
subscribe or click this link:
http://onyxweb.streamguys.com/subscribe/force_signup.html

Netherlands
Game 1 - W 6-4
Game 2 - W 5-2
Game 3 - W 5-3
Game 4 - W 5-4

Riptide
Game 1 - L 1-5
Game 2 - L 2-8
Game 3 - W 5-4
Game 4 - W 3-0

Da Vinci Science Center

Smitty, Friedman and I did a two day appearance at the Da Vinci Science Center here on the Cedar Crest campus. We talked to junior high students about science concepts and how they relate to sports. We did exercises to measure velocity and distance; they tested their reaction time and how fast they could throw a ball. I know that Emily, Ashley and I had fun doing it and it seemed like the students enjoyed it too.

We even got to ride a GyroSphere! What is a GyroSphere, you ask? I don't really know how to describe it... just watch the video!

Jersey Number Revealed

The fans voted and on opening day I was finally given my jersey number!!! Yay, I'm not ?? anymore :)

I LOVE sushi and Hacky try-outs

I had Sushi for this first time and I liked it!! We went to this little place across the street from our dorm and it was really good. Margo and I got chicken teriyaki and we split the Shrimp something roll. Shoooot I already forgot what it was called. Tempura? Can't be sure. It was quite the experience though... the waitress brought out hot towels and gave one to Margo, who said "thanks" and put in on the table, then I just held mine and waited for someone else to get one, and finally Rocky got hers and wiped off her hands. Margo and I were like "ohhhh," haha. Then we wanted to practice using our chop sticks so we made up a game where one person drops a piece of straw wrapper and the other person tries to catch it with their sticks. At first it was just me and Margo playing (since we're kids) but the rest of em couldn't help to join the fun. And just imagine a bunch of athletes making a simple game soooo competitive, haha. You should have heard us yelling in disappointment when someone would juuust miss. It was hilarious.

Now, for the serious stuff. For those of you that don't know, one of our pre-game rituals for the Force is to play Hacky. Not everyone plays, just those who want to but we get pretty into it. Last year we had 6 members on Team Hack but we've lost a few of those players so we had to recruit for this year's team. A few nights ago we hosted round one of try-outs. Jenna Hall aka "Haller" and Ashley Smith aka "Smitty" were our first victims. Each try-out began with a verbal question and answer session followed by a physical skills test. Tune in to our youbtube video below to see the results...

Phillies Day

On Saturday the Phillies held a free clinic for over 200 softball players. The Force along with some of the Phillies "ball girls" worked the clinic teaching hitting, defense and pitching. I can't speak for the other stations, but I know the pitching station went well. All the parents thanked us and said we did a good job and all the girls seemed to enjoy it as well.
After the clinic we headed over to the Phillies stadium (across the street), to get ready for the game. They fed us lunch and provided us with a locker room to shower and get changed. We watched a little bit of BP before we headed over to lead the parade of softball players ranging from tee ball to high school. Just walking into the tunnel and hearing all the girls scream when they saw us almost made me cry. Seeing the excitement on their faces and hearing them scream like we're celebrities just makes me love the game even more. Being an idol for those young girls and paving the way for the NPF to grow into what it should be is what we all play for. After we led the pack around the entire stadium, we returned to the 3rd base line where each of us were announced and Ruth Hartman, a hall of fame baseball player, was honored. Amy Harre and Ashley Smith threw the first pitch of the game but none of us got to see it :( After that they divided us into groups on the concourse to sign autographs through the 3rd inning. Amy, Margo, Ashley, Tory and myself (pitchers and catchers) were all together. After the 5th inning Rocky and I got to do a skit on the field with the Fanatic! We struck him out :) I'm not gonna lie, I was REALLY nervous that I was either going to hit him or over-throw it, but miraculously I didn't. I'm still trying to find a video of it, but I haven't had any luck yet. In the 7th inning our entire team danced on the 1st base dugout to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with the Fanatic. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good day :)

Book Binders, TEN Stone & J.L. Sullivan's

For our week in Philly we had several evening events and team dinners. Book Binders is probably the nicest restaurant I've ever been to! It's an up-scale seafood restaurant in the heart of Philadelphia that draws customers from all over. Tom treated all of us to dinner and it was sooooo good! I had steak and crab which also came with a giant baked potato and clam chowder. We had this appetizer that had shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, and then these shots of tomato juice, vodka, and an oyster . Weird, but after Spence called Margo and I babies we tried it and it actually wasn't bad. The picture to the left is one of the hallways in Book Binders; it's full of pictures of past Presidents, actors, singers, athletes, entertainers, etc. that have been there. They didn't take our picture but we did leave them with a Force poster that they're supposed to put up.
Ten Stone was a sweet little bar on South Street that Annie, one of our owners frequents at. We mingled with people there and did a raffle and 50/50. We ended up making like $400 (I think) and the owner matched it! I think that was my favorite bar/restaurant we've been to, and not just because it's called TEN stone :)
J.J. Sullivan's is a new up-scale sports bar in Philly and we were there for the opening night! We even had our own little room to chill in, which was sweet! This blog has a post about the event and there's some pictures of us there! The fifth picture down is us chillin' in our VIP room, and the very last picture is us on the red carpet.

10 for a day!

As you know, I don't get to find out my jersey number til opening day, but Ashley let me wear #10 for our Force events! I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was... don't worry, I took pictures.
On Monday morning we had physicals and then we took our first trip to Dunkin!!!! In case you don't know what the means, Dunkin Donuts is HUGE over here in the East and we LOVE it. Sooo, 9 months without it has been ridiculous and we were pretty excited for our first trip. Here's some pics:


In the afternoon we went to St. Luke's children's hospital to visit some of the children. We handed out Force shirts, bears, wristbands, hats and visors. All of the kids we visited were SO excited to see us :) It was really fun but sad at the same time. You could just tell by looking into their eyes how exhausted they were from whatever disease or illness they were going through. It was pretty cool to make them happy even if it was only for the few minutes we visited with them. The last boy we visited, John, was my favorite. We gave him a shirt and visor and he insisted on putting both of them on right away. Then when Belle, our mascott, came in his whole face lit up. It was a great experience and I'd love to do it again.
pictures: (1)quote from the hospital, (2)quote from the hospital, (3)team @ st. luke's, (4)margo and me, (5)john throwing his bear at Belle, (6)john reading to margo



Monday night we had an event at Philadelphia's most popular sports bar, Chickie and Pete's. We walked around and passed out schedules while the NPF draft video was playing on a few of the television screens. The food was great and we had fun, there just wasn't much of a crowd because the weather wasn't great.

Road Trip

Our road trip from Illinois to Pennsylvania was supposed to take 13 hours, 31 minutes according to Mapquest. But throw in a 2 hour delay to road construction, pulling over to check the oil when the check gages light came on, oh yeah and constant rain and you'll get there in SEVENTEEN! Gooood times, let me tell you. Margo Pruis, my roomie and fellow Reteran (to be explained later) and I headed out of Normal at approxiamtely 7:00am. Only one hour after the planned departure time, not too bad. We got on 74 (my IL friends tell me I can't say 'the 74') with high energy and excitement, thinking we'd get into Philly at 7pm. Ha ha ha, not quite. We hit the half way point at about 2:00pm. And then we only drove 5 miles in the next 2 hours! I guess there was some road construction on a bridge, so they had all the cars merge, exit, and get right back on. And apparently that takes two hours! Wow. During all that sitting, my poor little truck was being a baby and thought it had an oil problem. But it didnt, it was just turning the "check gages" light on for fun. But we still got out to check the oil, regardless. That was pretty fun. We stuck the stick thingy in there and it was to the third dot. Now I don't know much about oil, but my dad taught me about the dots, don't you worry! Aaaand we did it three times just to be safe. After the oil scare we pulled back into the stand-still traffic. We put some tunes on and performed a little concert for the cars around us. We even got a few honks! Margo dared me to let the goats out of the trailer in front of us, but instead I took a picture! We played a round of Hey Cow and went 4-4! It's a pretty self-descriptive game. When you drive by cows you yell "Hey Cow!!" and then you count how many of them turn to look. It's fun :) We stopped a few times to keep us and the T-ruck energized. Oh and we played the game where you try to hold your breath through tunnels. Holy cow there are some LONG tunnels in Pennsylvania. We decided not to play that after we got light-headed from one. We finally arrived in Essington, PA at about 12:30pm. Wooo hooo!! Back to Philly :)

Training and Coaching

Training
44 days until Spring Training,I am getting SO excited!!! My training has been going really well, Landon is kicking my butt! For the past three weeks we (shannon and I) have been doing a new workout that he tailored just for us :) It focuses a lot on improving our explosiveness off the mound. It was pretty funny, he actually had us pitching tennis balls in the weight room so he could videotape our pitching motion, analyze it, and then come up with a workout that would fully benefit us as pitchers. Right now we have five different workouts we're doing, one for each day of the week. It's a mixture of lifts, cardio on machines, stairs, sprints, core, and stretching. He has us wear heart rate monitors to track out heart rate during our conditioning workout, and then also when we are pitching. The point is to determine our target heart rate when giving our max effort (ex:pitching or sprinting); like at what rate are we getting fatigued at?, when are we the strongest?, etc. For example, he says that when pitching our heart rate shouldn't go over 170. So when we do stair sprints, we have to adjust our rest period to make sure our heart rate isn't going over 170. We do 5 second sprints with 30-45 seconds rest periods, to simulate pitching (max effort, rest, max effort, rest).
As far as pitching workouts go, I've been throwing to quite a mix of hitters. I'm helping coach a high school team so I throw to them pretty often, but it's usually about 60% effort. You know, can't hurt the kids! Haha. I've also thrown to ISU's team in scrimmage situations as well as just some BP. And then last week I threw to two guys who play on national fastpitch teams (one for US and one for Canada). I try to throw full out at least once a week, and I throw to my HS girls like 4 times a week. I actually find that to be pretty beneficial because it allows me to work on my spin and movement a lot.
Coaching
I am the pitching coach for Normal West's high school softball team and I love it! I've never really wanted to coach but I honestly love it. My two pitchers are Jenn and Erin and they are very talented athletes. So far we've played five games and we're 4-1. It's really cool to see pitching from a different perspective. I made a chart so I can track how my girls are doing throughout the game. I usually focus on whether or not they're getting ahead in the count, number or walks, and what pitches are being hit. I don't call the signals, but I usually talk to the catchers between innings if I notice something. I think I'm gonna come up with a key word system too. You know how coaches say things like "mix it up" for change up? Well mine is going to be better than that. I'm thinking like types of fruit or something. You know, nothing obvious. I'm actually missing a double header tomorrow so that's a bummer :( It's funny cuz when April asked me if I wanted to help, I said yes but I didn't anticipate that I'd get this attached. I miss a lot of practices because of work and I hate it! Our league games don't start until April 12th and then Regionals start the 19th. So I will miss all of our post season. Bummer. BUT, I am VERY excited for spring training! As of now we are planning on being in Philadelphia for a week. We will practice there, do a clinic, and be the guests of honor at a Phillies game! Sounds like SO much fun! :) I'm counting down the days...

Dynamic Duo No More

I'm sitting here watching game tracker and listening to the live internet broadcast of the Illinois State game and I never thought I would miss it this much. A few minutes ago the announcer commented that Amber hadn't give up a hit since April and that she hasn't pitched much since then. He went on to explain that she did pitch here and there last season "but the dynamic duo Shannon Nicholson and Stacy Birk are now gone." Just hearing that hurt my heart. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to play for the Force, it's just hard right now because college season just started. My ex-teammates all get to travel for the next few weekends to Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, playing 4-5 games while I'm stuck here in the arctic. Even just seeing the pictures the girls are posting from the airport or the hotel makes me sad. I really miss it, and I didn't think it would get to me this much.
Shannon and I may not be the dynamic duo anymore, but we're still working out together and challenging each other. We lift and condition monday, wednesday, and friday, condition on tuesday and thursday and we do 25 minute abs everyday. Landon had us get heart rate monitors so we can keep track of our heart rate when we're pitching and then replicate that when we're conditioning. I'm excited to see what kind of workout he's going to come up with for us.
This morning I was supposed to pitch to Tony, one of the strength coaches, but he didn't show up. So I went in the locker room and got a tee and gathered up all 6 balls I could find. (The rest are with the team in Florida) I hit for a bit and then decided I'd try pitching without a catcher. I put a net behind the cage, thinking it was tight enough that the ball would bounce off of it, but I was wrong. So I ended up chasing every ball I pitched. It was interesting to say the least. But what do you do without a catcher?
Thanks to everyone who voted for my jersey number. Erin said she picked the winner before the poll was actually shut down so I don't even know what it is yet!

10 days left!

In just TEN days the voting will be over and I'll have a new jersey number! But, you'll have to wait til opening day to find out what it is. So far there are over 20,000 votes!! And poor little 28 is still way behind. I haven't voted yet but I'm thinking I'll vote for #28 just to give it some more votes. If you haven't voted yet, or you want to vote again go to http://www.philadelphiaforce.com.