Sports Shorts

Athlete of the Week

This week junior Jamie Frankel proved to the community why he is worthy of the title of Athlete of the Week.
Through matches against both Ohio Wesleyan University and Otterbein College, Frankel was undefeated in first singles.
Frankel defeated Ryan Drew of OWU 2-6, 6-4 and 6-1, then went on to defeat Dan Dodson of Otterbein College in a convincing 6-4, 6-1 rout.
Also putting in an exemplary performance in his first doubles matches, he combined with first-year teammate David Cotter for a 1-1 record. Despite a hard loss to OWU’s doubles team 8-3, Jamie and Cotter handed a sound defeat to Otterbein with an overall match score of 8-4.

In the Locker Room With . . .

This week I interviewed sophomore Julia Daher from the Oberlin College women’s softball team. Also a basketball player for Oberlin, Daher has led quite a career here at Oberlin in athletics putting up excellent numbers for both sports.

So what position do you play in softball?
JD: I play catcher.
What made you choose to play that position, out of curiosity?
JD: I actually didn’t really choose it. I started out playing first base when I played in middle school and in little league when I was younger. Then my sophomore year of high school, on my J.V. team we only had one catcher and she ended up spraining her thumb, or jamming it or something, and so we needed somebody — wait is that what happened? Wait, that isn’t what happened, okay. We had two pitchers and one catcher, and we needed a second catcher just for practice, and so I volunteered to do it. Then our starting catcher jammed her thumb and so I started playing in games. From that point on I just kept catching.
So have you ever like, totally annihilated someone going for a play at the plate?
JD: Yeah, I’ve hit some people pretty hard. Let’s see. Not one particular instance, my job is pretty much to block the plate and smack them with the ball when they come in.
So do you like basketball or softball better? Or can you not really compare them?
JD: That’s kind of a tough question because I like different aspects of them. They both have their upsides. I’m definitely a better softball player, so that kind of makes it more fun from the varsity perspective. But, they’re just really different games and there’s things I like about both of them. Basketball is definitely more fast-paced, run and gun type of stuff, but there’s also this different feeling when you first run out on the court for warm-ups and stuff. It’s this feeling that you don’t really get from softball. But then on the other hand, softball is more of an individualized team sport, and the action comes in short spurts. Like there’s a pitch and there’s a play, and once the ball is back in the pitcher’s circle you just stop. So it’s a lot more stop-and-go. And that kind of allows you to collect yourself a little more. I kind of like that. In basketball there isn’t that opportunity unless you call a timeout.
What do you think the greatest advantage about playing a varsity sport at Oberlin College is?
JD: I’d say the fact that athletics aren’t such a central focus on campus. I feel like at other Division III schools, pretty much the rest of the schools in our conference, athletics are a large focus within the student body, and here that’s definitely not the case. It promotes a better academic environment, and then the kids who do play are the ones who really care because they’re not getting the recognition that they might get at other schools.
What do you think is harder, softball or baseball? I mean, personally, I couldn’t hit a softball if my life depended on it.
JD: I mean, I think they’re very similar sports. Softball gets this reputation for being a sissy sport, but at the same time it’s a lot harder to pitch a softball in terms of accuracy and speed. The windmill motion is more complicated than just throwing a ball overhand. Not to say pitching a baseball is easy; it’s just a different technique that is more difficult than it looks.
So do you have to practice outdoors soon? Or will they let you wait until the snow is completely gone?
JD: Well, we’re definitely going to have to wait for the snow to melt, and it depends if the field is muddy or not. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. At this point it doesn’t look like we’re going to get to go outside until Spring Break in Georgia. I say the sooner the better — playing in the field house is fun for the first couple of weeks. Then you get outside and realize how different the turf is, and how much it sucks to have to field fly balls with all those rafters. I’d say it’s like twice as hard for the outfield because they don’t get real practice until we get outside. There’s not much we can do in the field house.
So you had a buzzed head earlier this year. What was that about and what do you think about short/no hair now?
JD: Actually, it was totally shaved. I went all the way and bic’d it. It was definitely just sort of a spontaneous thing. The first basketball practice after I did it was really cool because running around I could feel the air just flying around my head, and getting out of the shower felt really nice, just running your hand over your head and its dry. It’s funny because I’ve noticed that quite a few girls have been shaving their heads this year, and I don’t know what that’s about. I wear hats a lot. Or, I did when I didn’t have any hair. People actually made lots of comments about me doing it in the fall since it was so cold.
Yeah, I was going to say, weren’t you cold without hair?
JD: Yeah, like I said, I wore hats a lot. One day I took my hat off in biology lab and this girl Emily came over and started talking to me about shaved heads and asked me if people ever came up to me and just randomly started rubbing it. That definitely never happened. I was sort of surprised when she asked too. Because I guess she had shaved her head and that’s what people did to her.
Anything else you want to add?
JD: I got nothin’.