California girls have a reputation of just wanting to have fun. The Virginia Cavaliers softball squad certainly isn't doing much to downplay that notion.
Six of the 18 players on the softball squad are from California, and two more hail from the west coast. In contrast, only four Cavaliers call Virginia their actual home. The rest of the roster all grew up in different states, ranging from Louisiana to Michigan to Pennsylvania. The geographical differences create a mixture of players with a unique dynamic and one goal in mind: play softball with as much personality as possible.
Virginia coach Cheryl Sprangel does not make a conscious plan to only recruit players from the west coast, or Virginia or any other specific geographic location. Sprangel merely looks for the top softball prospects who can handle the academic workload that a school like Virginia demands. And yes, that takes her out to California time and time again.
"We try to get the best players from wherever they come from," Sprangel said. "We look at Virginia first. What basically happens is just there are so many more softball players, and the majority of the better ones, a lot of them are on the west coast."
Given that only four Cavaliers actually come from the Commonwealth, the squad has developed a sense of family. Being 3,000 miles away from home can be hard on any student. With that being the case for more than a third of the team, the importance of finding a group of people who are in the same situation becomes even more critical. Fortunately for the out-of-state players, the Virginia softball squad is one the tightest, most friendly teams on Grounds.
"This team is so close, it's like this our family," said junior infielder Sara Larquier, a Burbank, California native. "When we're having those down days, there's a bunch in that boat, that our family is 3,000 miles away."
For many of the Cavaliers who grew up out west, the University of Virginia did not even seem like a possibility until Sprangel sent letters encouraging the players to take a visit to Charlottesville. The softball scene in California is pretty intense, with year-round leagues, great coaches and top-rated talent that puts the players in a world dominated by softball.
Freshman pitcher/first baseman and native Californian Whitney Holstun had to convince herself to think about more than softball when visiting potential schools.
"I hadn't heard of Virginia before they [coach Sprangel and her staff] talked to me," Holstun said. "But then I came, and team on the recruiting trip was just so awesome, too."
Larquier shared a similar story.
"Like Whitney, I hadn't heard of Virginia until I got a letter," Larquier said. "When I came out here, I meshed so well with the team. The softball team was strong, but it was about building a program. Everything just fit."
On the flip side, things can seem just as awkward at first for native Virginians coming to their home state school and seeing a team dominated by out-of-staters. Like their west coast teammates, however, a sense of family and team transcends differences.
"It was weird at first, because the Virginia players were mainly from the team I played on, the Shamrocks," said senior catcher Jenn Wynn, a native of Herndon, Virginia. "So it was the girls I knew really well, then there were all these girls from California."
Whether from Virginia or California, potential recruits are all sold on the softball squad's ability to overcome geographically based differences and form a cohesive, fun group that loves playing softball.
"We have a great group of girls, and we get along so much better than I've heard from other teams," Wynn said. "I've heard some catty stories from other teams. We get along really, really well."
So maybe it's not only California girls who just want to have fun. Maybe it's Virginia softball players as well.
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