In this life we are free to be who we want to be, play the sports we wish to play, and have the career we have always dreamed of having, but in some cases these freedoms and dreams will never become a reality. For many young women it has always been their dream to play softball in the Olympics one day, but as of right now that dream will never become a reality with softball being removed from the Olympics until 2020 when it could possibly be reinstated. For many of the pro softball players now and for many college players their dream of playing in the Olympics will probably never come true, so it is our duty as Americans, woman, and softball players to get softball back into the Olympics so the younger generation of women can have their dream become a reality.
We as women should be allowed to have a sport in the Olympics that involves team unity and a sense of pride. The women on the U.S. national team are women for girls of all ages to look up to. They are women who take pride in what they do, want to be role models for women, and give back to the softball community whether it is through putting on camps, speaking to teams, or going to charity events. Caitlin Lowe, Jennie Finch, and Jessica Mendoza are three of the best known women in softball for giving back to the softball community. All three of these women put on camps for youth, support the college level teams, and speak at evens to empower girls of all ages to follow their dreams no matter what they may be.
Softball was taken out of the Olympics after team USA won the silver medal in 2008 losing to Japan. Many retired softball players along with many former Olympians started a program to get softball back into the 2016 Olympics called Back Softball, however, it was recently decided that softball was not to be featured in the 2016 Olympics so the next hope for softball in the Olympics is 2020. With softball out of the Olympics women are not having the opportunity to play the sport they love for their country and get to wear their countries name across their chest. USA, Canada, and Japan are the best known in the softball world meaning the future of softball is not only important to women in America but also to women all over the world.
Women from the college leave on up to the national team will go over to Japan, Canada and even Australia to participate in a league together. Countries coming together as one to participate in a sport shows how much this sport means to women and how important it is for softball to become more universal. The major athletes in softball want softball to expand and make it so more women can play this sport at a higher leave. With softball being removed from the Olympics this has created a challenge in the pursuit of making softball into a major league sport like baseball.
To make softball into a major league like baseball something needed to be done to get softball to that level and to make it known as baseball is. Several former members of the USA softball team have joined together in recent years to discuss what the best way to cultivate their sport would be. What they came up with is to start their own professional league, National Pro Fastpitch League. NPF for short, is a little-known professional league with only four teams and minimal television air time. With only four teams in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, and Tennessee the National Pro Fastpitch League is small by professional sports standards. Each team is limited to 20 players, with a salary cap of $150,000. Players typically earn $8,000 to $50,000 a season, which runs from June through August. The Akron Racers of Ohio, who led the league in attendance, attracted about 1,000 fans a game. (www.nytimes.com) But now some of softballs biggest names have committed to play in the league and the league is expected to grow. Caitlin Lowe, Jessica Mendoza, Cat Osterman, Monica Abbott, Andrea Duran, and Natasha Watley to name a few are some of the biggest names in softball and have all committed to play on one of the four NPF teams.
NPF is the future of softball now that it has been taken out of the Olympics and may possibly never be reinstated back in. The Olympics, however, would make the world of softball much more complete. With softball at the professional level growing and many known names putting their lives, careers, and hearts into making softball a force to be reckoned with softball being reinstated into the Olympics would be the icing on the cake. Softball will survive without the Olympics because of all the support from current, former, and future softball players and athletes but the Olympics is still an opportunity of a lifetime that many girls dream of. Taking home the gold for your country in the sport you love is a dream for many women in the softball community.
Softball is played by fifty million people in one hundred and twenty five countries. (www.buzzle.com) With that amount of people in support of softball and playing softball the sport is bound to grow and women’s dreams of playing softball at a professional level are bound to come true. As women, as athletes, and as softball supporters it is now our duty to keep the dream alive and to keep the sport of softball growing. Giving up on softball cannot be an option. Whether softball gets reinstated into the Olympics in 2020 or not the dream that many young girl and many women in general have about making softball into a career has to stay alive. Softball is a sport where women have the opportunity to be a part of something, to feel needed, and to be a role model to be looked up to for all the hard work, dedication, and pride put forth. Whether the Olympic committee sees it or not softball is a sport that will never die and is a sport that will receive the recognition it deserves.
