Rams Relief: Run with the Rams

Back in 2019, Jen Fisher referenced the upslope.

The championship run for her Colorado State softball team didn't come out of the blue. The records the few years prior hadn't shown much difference to the naked eye, but a deeper dive into the numbers did. So she went aggressive in scheduling for her team that season, matching up with bigger teams in larger tournaments.

By the end of the year, with a trophy raised, they could see the difference.

"When we won the Mountain West, we were able to travel to a lot of quality tournaments to play high-quality teams," pitcher Jessica Jarecki said. "I definitely think that made us better. We beat some ranked teams that year, and then we won the conference. Playing top-level competition and having the opportunity to go to those tournaments – that are more expensive, honestly – really helped our team get better."

Jarecki knows much of it was possible due to donations from the softball booster club, known as Run with the Rams, as well as gifts from former program letter winners. To beat the best, one must know what the competition looks like, and the Rams certainly did by the time they were headed to the NCAA Tournament.

Through the booster club, Fisher has been able to upgrade the practice facilities, as well as practice habits. They purchased software from Diamond Kinetics, with the hitters being able to track swing angles and velocities, the pitchers the rotation, velocity, and break on their pitches. Already, that data has been used to create better habits.

The donations have also aided professional development and other aspects of the playing field, but Fisher likes the overall product – that of a well-rounded student-athlete.

"The overall practice experience, making practices more efficient and effective, that helps the development of the player," Fisher said. "When they're very efficient with practices and safe, they're more available. We also have a group of student-athletes who are really focused on academics, so having different batting cages and ways to make our practices highly effective, that helps us help them not have long practices and they can devote the time needed to their studies."

In a very unprecedented time in all of our lives, Colorado State Athletics and the Ram Club are asking all of our valued supporters to donate or make a gift which will have a life-altering impact on our student-athletes. The financial crisis is real for everyone, yet our primary goal remains to create the greatest experience for our student-athletes. Your gifts will help lessen the impact they feel as they pursue their athletic and educational goals.

Fisher and her program don't want to take their foot off the gas pedal of momentum. The pandemic already did that a bit, with the cancellation of their Mountain West season last year. The Rams have turned their mental outlook into making that a hiccup, not a roadblock.

There are still some challenges to be faced – some unseen – so Fisher knows Run with the Rams carries a deeper importance for her program moving forward.

"This year especially, it's going to be really important," Fisher said. "We were able to have a really good year last year, so we had a bit of a cushion, and that could potentially help us quite a bit with our travel schedule. We wouldn't normally use the money for that. We were on such a role in 2019 of playing good teams and beating ranked teams; that helped us win our conference."

Jarecki knows her time is running out, with just one more year in her collegiate career. She is grateful to Run with the Rams and the past players who have helped pave a path for the program. She wants to not only finish with a flourish, but see the program continually move forward after she takes her last step out of the circle.

For that to be possible, she said the booster club and the program's supporters will play a key role as the program continues to flourish. Already because of them, the Rams hope to eventually install lights at their field, opening up a door to even more possibilities.

"I think it's very vital," she said. "One of the big things, we don't have lights on our field. That would help us both in a practice setting and a game setting. Such as now with the time change, we have to practice only in daylight and then we have to finish inside because it gets dark quicker. It would also help us host more tournaments and to get more quality teams to come play us, and that will better us in general."

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