Thursday, May 6, 2010
Two words are constantly used to describe senior infielder Sara Ramirez when she plays: competitive and fighter.
“She is one of the sweetest girls ever, but whenever you see her on the field, she has that drive and fire, which you can sense in her eyes,” freshman pitcher and outfielder Alex Jones said. “When you see a person like that, it’s intimidating.”
Ramirez’s passion and drive for the game is contagious to the rest of the team, Jones said.
“People want to look up to her, want to perform as well as she does and accomplish things she wants to get accomplished,” Jones said.
That sort of fire is exactly why coach Megan Smith thinks she has been such an asset to the team this season.
“I’ve told her several times she’s the heart and soul of our team,” Smith said. “She pushes herself and her teammates.”
Smith also said Ramirez was an extremely determined and resilient player.
“She fights through a lot of injuries and pain that you would never know she had,” Smith said.
Ramirez said she got her will to win from her family.
“We can’t even play a game of Go Fish without it getting crazy in our family,” Ramirez said.
Being the youngest of six girls, all who played softball, Ramirez grew up battling against her sisters.
“We’re so competitive at everything that it made us so much better,” Ramirez said.
Twenty-four was the number their father wore when he played baseball. The Ramirezes, a very close family, all wore the same number to show their solidarity.
“It was kind of like if you had Ramirez and the number 24 on the back, you better be good,” Ramirez said.
While playing on a California team with fellow senior Sarah Vertelka, Ramirez took a recruiting trip with several teammates to Kansas and realized the stereotypes about the state were wrong.
“It’s not just like tumbleweeds and fields of corn,” Ramirez said. “We didn’t even know green existed here. That’s how ignorant we were.”
She committed to Kansas with Vertelka, but the distance from home took a toll on Ramirez. Coming from a big, close family, Ramirez said she was homesick during her freshman and sophomore seasons. But the closeness of the team helped alleviate some of the pains of being away from her family.
“The girls I came in with like Ally Stanton and Vertelka became my sisters,” Ramirez said.
Now with just two more games in the regular season, Ramirez said she was going to feel lost after her career is over. She said she enjoyed the work ethic and discipline she got from softball.
“I feel like I need to be pushed that way,” Ramirez said. “Maybe without it I’m not going to know what to do.”
— Edited by Cory Bunting
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Ramirez’s drive helps push softball team
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