Pitcher perfect
Utah State softball player Jessica Garnett’s career began almost by accident.
A girl on the team her dad coached quit and he needed another name on the roster. So the young Garnett, a gymnast and a serious “girly-girl” at the time, stepped in.
“I wasn’t really good at it, I kind of just played,” Garnett said. “But then I started liking it a lot, so I just switched over to softball.”
But Garnett’s dad wasn’t done influencing Garnett’s softball career. His team didn’t have a pitcher and Garnett was available.
“He made me the pitcher and I really hated it,” the California native said. “The next year I decided I didn’t want to be a pitcher, but I was the only pitcher again. So I pitched.”
After time, Garnett said she changed her mind about pitching. She said she thinks the reason she didn’t like it so much at first was because she was forced into it.
But it didn’t take her too long to change her mind about pitching and Garnett stayed with it because she likes being in control.
“You’re the one that always has the ball in your hand. You’re in control,” she said about pitching. Most of the time, she said, she likes the control.
After a couple more years playing recreational softball, Garnett was ready for a change. She said rec ball “got not competitive enough.”
So Garnett said she moved up on the competitive scale by joining a club team.
Traveling all over the United States, Garnett said her time with that team, especially when it won nationals in 2001, was her favorite memory in softball.
“It was just shocking because you never think you are going to win something that big. Then it happens to you and you’re just in shock,” she said.
A couple years playing on her club team prepared Garnett to move to the next level competitively – college softball.
Garnett said she chose to come play at Utah State because it was so different from what she had known before. The mountains and snow were different, and she liked that, but one difference that really struck here were the people.
“In California, if someone at the store bumps into you they’re like ‘get out of my way.’ But here, they’re all ‘Oh, I’m sorry. What’s your name? How are you,'” she said.
But not everything about Utah is better. Garnett said she definitely likes the weather in California better.
After college, Garnett said she would like to coach because she loves softball and wants to stay connected with it. She doesn’t see a future in professional softball, but if the opportunity is there, she’ll take it.
Garnett said the Aggie softball team’s main strength is its depth. She said in any position if someone gets injured, there is always another player on the bench to step in. And, she said the team gets along well together.
“We’re kind of like a family. We see each other all the time and you kind of have to like each other to get through everything,” she said.
Garnett also said she brings a lot of versatility to the team.
“I think I bring versatility to this team,” she said. “I can play the outfield, I can hit or just do whatever’s asked of me.”
The USU sophomore said her second year playing for the Aggies is a lot different from her first year, mostly because of the coaching change.
Change was something the softball team definitely needed from last season, she said.
“I think we came to a point where we just stopped last year,” she said. “Just stopped getting better. [The new coaches] brought change. They’re a lot different from last year. They’re always making us better. They’re pushing us to get to our best and not let us slack off.”
Garnett said there is only one more change she would like to see this season.
“We need fans to our games, lots of fans.”
She said after playing at Texas A&M in front of somewhere around 1,000 fans, the Ags realized what they were missing.
“They could be our 10th man on the field, our extra player,” she said.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu