Spring Break
More to Georgia softball catcher than just dumbbells
RACHEL BOWERS
Issue date: 7/17/09 Section: Sports
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I, a former athlete turned journalist, followed the 175 lb. Georgia softball catcher into the room where dumb bells were being lifted like feathers and weight plates were slung around like Frisbees. I was swathed in my red and black athletic duds, and was well aware that I was about to be the one-time weight lifting partner of someone who is equipped with enough brawn to bench press two of me.
Last Friday morning, I joined junior Emily "Bird" Herren in her usual upper body workout that consisted of several exercises, all of which transformed my arms and back into jelly that would go nicely with a piece of golden toast.
A manila folder with several sheets of paper inside was secured between her arm and her side, the contents of which dictated our each and every exercise within the four walls of an athlete's dream weight room. I had every piece of equipment at my fingertips to whip my terribly out-of-shape figure into a future Sport Illustrated swimsuit model (psh, yeah right).
I grimaced and grunted through the morning workout, but made it out alive and breathing, with all my appendages attached and joints properly located. I held my own even though I was terrifyingly close to busting my chin open on the pull-up bar a time or two. Herren shook off the workout, and quickly had her mind set on her daily protein shake.
We navigated our way to Smoothie King to slurp down some delicious frozen beverages, and transitioned from the roles of college athlete and clodhopping weight room has-been to human being and journalist.
Day in and day out, Herren throws herself into the weight room, and lifts extra outside of what is assigned by the softball team's strength and conditioning coach Tyler Jorgensen.
"The weight room is the one place I can go, and it doesn't matter if I've had a bad day or if I've had a good day, it's my time for me to do me," Herren said. "It really helps to keep me sane with the stress that comes along with being a student-athlete."
The weight room is where Herren excels most. Her self-discipline is obvious as she clanks additional weight plates on bench bars and pumps out extra sets of power cleans, erasing Georgia softball weight lifting records, and etching her name into Georgia history.
Herren holds the record for bench press and power clean with her sites set to break the back squat record as well as attempting to break the records she already holds herself.
The rising junior is not an amateur in the weight room, as she played eight sports in high school, lettering in five of them, including varsity football at Rome High School.
Playing football was a dream initiated by Herren's mother Gloria, but that became a dream diverted, as soccer became the focal point in Herren's life during grade school years. The idea of suiting up in shoulder pads with the boys did not resurface again until Herren was almost a sophomore in high school.
"After a soccer game my freshman year my dad was like, 'Has Emily ever thought about kicking footballs?' Right then my mom came to me with the idea, and I went to our head coach," Herren said. "I came in as a kicker, but there's a huge difference between a kicker and a football player. I wasn't settling."
Not settling led to some jacked-up, unapologetic licks laid on Herren in practice, as she aspired to be more than a kicker for the Wolves.
"I jumped in drills, and started calling out people who were giving me crap. After a few hits, and after they saw that I was out there because I loved the sport and I wanted to play, they accepted me more," Herren said. "But I got crushed."
Herren played middle linebacker, defensive end and was also the kicker for the Wolves, on her way to becoming the first female to score in a varsity football game for Rome High School.
But as Herren's days in high school became fewer and fewer, she honed in on the two sports that she could play in college: softball and soccer.
She believed her softball skills were superior, and the decision was made easier when she began admiring herself dressed in the red and black.
"I had always dreamed of playing softball at Georgia, and as soon as Georgia came into the picture, that made the decision for me," Herren said.
But with her days as a Bulldog became the forefront in her life, she began to feel painfully barren as if she had left something of great importance in her past.
When Herren was a sophomore in high school, her best friend's life was taken in a car crash, leaving Herren with a dream for two weighing heavy on her mind.
"It was our dream to play softball here, and once I got here and I was living our dream, it hit me like a ton of bricks," Herren said. "It was a lot to deal with trying to focus on ball and school, but in the back of my mind all I thought was, 'She deserves to be here.'"
As a freshman in college, the gut-wrenching feeling of a best friend's absence while living the reality they both dreamed of as little girls proved to be extraordinarily taxing on Herren.
But she had a phone conversation with her best friend's mother that changed her mind-set.
"I had to reassure myself everyday that this is what she would've wanted, and this was her dream too," Herren said. "If she can't be here to live it out, then why would I let this opportunity pass me by?"
Not only was Herren coping with not having her best friend with her, she was suffering from a bit of separation anxiety from her twin sister, Ellen.
According to Emily, the two "offset each other", as Emily is the stellar athlete with super strength, while Ellen took a contrasting route and found sisterhood in a sorority at Jacksonville State University.
"She's my other half. We compliment each other so well," Herren said. "I feel like until people meet her, they don't get to see all of me. When people finally do see me with her, they get to finally see the full me."
When the "two peas in a pod" parted ways to embark on their own separate college experiences, a growing period was forced on the two of them.
"It just shows me that as life goes on, you have to put forth an effort to keep people in your life and you really have to prioritize a lot better," Emily said. "That's what you got to do to be able to progress and grow."
Approaching her 21st birthday, Herren has conquered each adversity that has presented itself in her life, and has given herself to so many people along the way, but says that is what makes her tick.
"I love the feeling you get when you do help somebody or when you are there for them and you make a difference in someone's life," Herren said.
Even though she has yet to start a game for the Bulldogs, she sees the silver lining and believes herself to be lucky.
"I may never start a game, but if I can help my teammates along the way to peak to their maximum potential, and then us go on and win a national championship, then I will be happy," Herren said. "I'm thankful for the experience because any little girl would die to be in my shoes."
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