Latest / Beyond the Paw - Clemson Athletics / Ep. 47 - Pitching for Clemson and Competing for Puerto Rico with Macey Cintron

Transcript

Ep. 47 - Pitching for Clemson and Competing for Puerto Rico with Macey Cintron · Beyond the Paw - Clemson Athletics

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Paw.
0:03
Speaker 1: Today we have Clemson women's softball player Macy Centron on
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Speaker 1: the podcast and she talks about growing up in Georgia
0:10
Speaker 1: Tiger Leadership Academy, and her experience competing internationally with Puerto Rico.
0:15
Speaker 1: Let's go beyond the Paw.
0:21
Speaker 2: Okay, everyone, welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Fall.
0:23
Speaker 2: Today we have softball player Macy Centron. Macy is the
0:28
Speaker 2: ACC Freshman of the Year, the All Region First Team
0:32
Speaker 2: Softball American Freshman on All American Do you want Softball
0:35
Speaker 2: First Team Freshman All American? And ACC first Team in
0:40
Speaker 2: ACC All Freshman Team, which is a long list of accomplishments.
0:44
Speaker 2: But we're so excited to have you and to hear
0:47
Speaker 2: you on the podcast, So welcome.
0:48
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Guys, I'm so excited to
0:50
Speaker 3: be here today.
0:51
Speaker 4: Thanks for being here.
0:52
Speaker 1: What's your schedule look like today?
0:55
Speaker 3: This morning I had theater class, which was fun, and
0:58
Speaker 3: then my roommate and I we went to Greenville to
1:00
Speaker 3: the Augusta Street Market. We got lunch there. Yeah, it
1:03
Speaker 3: was really good. This is our second time there. And
1:06
Speaker 3: then we just went to some boutiques in Greenville and
1:09
Speaker 3: then came back here.
1:12
Speaker 1: That's so fun going to Greenville on a weekday. Yeah,
1:16
Speaker 1: Greenville seems to me like weekend activity.
1:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's like a special occasion.
1:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, make a day of it. We really think it's
1:23
Speaker 1: like I think it's like so far away, but it's really.
1:27
Speaker 4: What are you doing this week for Thanksgiving? Do you
1:29
Speaker 4: guys have practices still or no?
1:31
Speaker 3: I actually we have TLA tonight, so we'll go. I'll
1:33
Speaker 3: go home tomorrow morning and then just hang out with
1:36
Speaker 3: my family. My brother's birthday is the thirtieth, so I'm
1:40
Speaker 3: going to go to Auburn to the Riley Green concert
1:42
Speaker 3: with him.
1:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:44
Speaker 1: So where are you from?
1:46
Speaker 3: So I'm originally from South Florida, like down south in
1:48
Speaker 3: Fort Lauderdale, and then I moved to Georgia in middle school.
1:52
Speaker 3: So but now I live in Georgia.
1:53
Speaker 1: Gotcha? You spent a majority of your time in Georgia. Yeah, gotcha.
1:57
Speaker 4: Cool. So you said you have a younger brother.
2:00
Speaker 3: And three older sisters.
2:01
Speaker 4: Wow, oh wowow we all play sports?
2:04
Speaker 3: No, my well, my brother plays baseball, but my older
2:06
Speaker 3: three sisters they don't play.
2:08
Speaker 1: So you're technically like a middle child.
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Speaker 3: Kinda. They're like from my dad was married before my mom,
2:13
Speaker 3: so they're like my half sisters. So I mean they're
2:17
Speaker 3: like a little older than us, but we kind of
2:18
Speaker 3: we did grow up together. Yeah, they have kids now,
2:21
Speaker 3: so I have nieces and nephews, which is fun.
2:23
Speaker 5: So that's okay, But being an aunt is the best.
2:28
Speaker 5: It is.
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Speaker 3: It's like you can watch them for a little bit
2:30
Speaker 3: and then send them back. You get like the best, Yeah,
2:32
Speaker 3: you get, then send them back.
2:34
Speaker 1: You don't have to keep them yet, no, Yeah, down
2:37
Speaker 1: the road. So tell me about your family and growing
2:40
Speaker 1: up in the world of softball. I know your mom
2:42
Speaker 1: was a softball player as well.
2:44
Speaker 3: Where did she go? What's her story? So, my mom
2:46
Speaker 3: grew up playing softball and then she ended up playing
2:49
Speaker 3: in college John and Florida, and then she also coached
2:52
Speaker 3: growing up. So she coached me when she was pregnant
2:56
Speaker 3: with me, like coached with me and her stomach. Yeah
2:58
Speaker 3: wait wait, hold on, coached with me and her stomach
3:01
Speaker 3: at third base. And then once I was born, those
3:04
Speaker 3: girls that she coached ended up being my coaches growing up,
3:08
Speaker 3: and my mom and my dad both coached me, so
3:10
Speaker 3: it was kind of like full circle. Moment for them,
3:12
Speaker 3: and my dad played semi pro baseball, so nice. Yeah,
3:15
Speaker 3: I was like born to play, I guess, yeah, yep.
3:19
Speaker 4: That's crazy. That's about how I was.
3:21
Speaker 2: Having like parents like in that environment all the time
3:24
Speaker 2: like shaped you for like how you are today.
3:26
Speaker 3: It was definitely interesting, Like they were always like really
3:29
Speaker 3: hard on me, and I was never the exception to anything.
3:32
Speaker 3: I always had to be there early, stay late, and
3:34
Speaker 3: I always had to work like harder than everybody else
3:36
Speaker 3: just because there was more of an expectation there for me.
3:39
Speaker 3: And so I think that kind of shaped like why
3:42
Speaker 3: I'm the player I am today is just because like
3:44
Speaker 3: I'm always working like super hard and I'm trying to
3:46
Speaker 3: be the hardest worker like on the team. And I
3:48
Speaker 3: think that that has like gone to show on like
3:50
Speaker 3: why I've been so successful. And I think that just
3:53
Speaker 3: like working for everything I get and nothing's like everything
3:56
Speaker 3: has to be earned. So I think that's something that
3:58
Speaker 3: they instilled within me, like coaching me and all that
4:01
Speaker 3: stuff growing up.
4:02
Speaker 1: So man, I don't know how you do it having
4:04
Speaker 1: your parents as your coach. And I wish I would
4:07
Speaker 1: get in so many bickering fights.
4:09
Speaker 3: Those car rds were terrible, like after tournaments or going
4:12
Speaker 3: to practice. I didn't want to go sometimes, you know,
4:15
Speaker 3: like when you're young, you don't always want to go
4:16
Speaker 3: to practice. And so it was like, well you're going
4:19
Speaker 3: and there's nothing. There's you know, eat you eat dinner
4:21
Speaker 3: in the car on the way to practice. And I
4:23
Speaker 3: drove like an hour to practice every day growing up.
4:26
Speaker 3: So yeah, and it was it was a lot. So
4:28
Speaker 3: it was a big car, but it ended up growing
4:30
Speaker 3: us closer together. Like looking back on it.
4:32
Speaker 2: And you know, like the tough love is like, yeah,
4:34
Speaker 2: they want the best for you and they want you
4:36
Speaker 2: to be like the best kid out there. So like
4:38
Speaker 2: that's like looking back on it, like if you ever
4:41
Speaker 2: had a like parent coach, you you're like, okay, that
4:43
Speaker 2: all makes sense.
4:44
Speaker 1: Now, but in the moment you're like, really, yeah, I
4:47
Speaker 1: had two.
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Speaker 3: I didn't just have one, I had both of them.
4:49
Speaker 3: So it was like my mom the head coach, my
4:52
Speaker 3: dad was the assistant.
4:53
Speaker 1: So it was like and they know everything about the
4:55
Speaker 1: sports and they everything you're doing wrong.
4:58
Speaker 5: Yeah.
4:58
Speaker 3: It's not like they're in the stands and they like, oh,
5:00
Speaker 3: like you did good, like good job. No, it was
5:02
Speaker 3: like you missed the sign here. We go, and then
5:04
Speaker 3: now in the car ride, You're like, you need to
5:06
Speaker 3: know the signs, and I'm like, oh my gosh, okay,
5:08
Speaker 3: here we go.
5:09
Speaker 1: So you know everything about softball, Yeah, how it works everything. Yeah,
5:13
Speaker 1: what position do you play?
5:15
Speaker 3: So I'm picture first base and then this year I
5:17
Speaker 3: just started playing a little bit of outfield, so I guess,
5:19
Speaker 3: picture utility everything. Yeah, and I also hit, So it's
5:23
Speaker 3: a lot, but I like having like some versatility.
5:26
Speaker 1: So you're like, show hey, Otani.
5:30
Speaker 4: Love that.
5:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess, yeah, I love.
5:34
Speaker 2: That's like pretty rare, you would say for like Yahabeli
5:37
Speaker 2: player in college.
5:38
Speaker 3: I think like in travel ball, a lot of people
5:40
Speaker 3: like pictures will hit. But it's really hard to do
5:43
Speaker 3: both in college. It just takes a lot of time,
5:46
Speaker 3: and you know, you might have to do a lot
5:47
Speaker 3: on your own just because practice time is limited. So
5:50
Speaker 3: if they need you to throw a bullpen in practice,
5:52
Speaker 3: you need to do the hitting circuit on your own
5:54
Speaker 3: or vice versa. So it's just like a lot of
5:56
Speaker 3: hard work, but it's like fun because especially like in season,
6:00
Speaker 3: when you know we're playing a lot of games, it's
6:02
Speaker 3: like if I'm struggling on the mound at least I
6:04
Speaker 3: have my bat in the lineup and I can like
6:07
Speaker 3: do something good hitting and help my team out that
6:09
Speaker 3: way or vice versa. So I think that is like
6:12
Speaker 3: probably why I enjoy it so much.
6:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, is that something you've always done?
6:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like growing up, I always hit. I think, like
6:19
Speaker 3: in high school a little bit, it was I didn't
6:21
Speaker 3: hit as much, which that's why last year I was
6:23
Speaker 3: a little shocked with like how I literally just hit
6:25
Speaker 3: last year. And I also pitched, but I didn't play
6:28
Speaker 3: defense as much. And so when I got here, I
6:31
Speaker 3: don't know. I was working hard, but I didn't know
6:33
Speaker 3: what the coaches were going to see in me to
6:34
Speaker 3: like maybe put me in the lineup. And I was
6:36
Speaker 3: in the four hoole last year, which is like the
6:38
Speaker 3: power and clean up position in softball. So I didn't
6:40
Speaker 3: really like expect that, Like I didn't come in expecting
6:43
Speaker 3: to be a hitter on the team. Yeah, And so
6:45
Speaker 3: when I got that opportunity, I was very like blessed
6:47
Speaker 3: and grateful for it.
6:48
Speaker 5: So yeah, what was that conversation like, because I heard
6:51
Speaker 5: coach Ritman like the recruiting you didn't even know that
6:54
Speaker 5: this was going to happen.
6:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he recruited you for a position for pitching.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and then now you can hit.
7:02
Speaker 3: So when I they recruited me back, I was playing
7:05
Speaker 3: in a tournament in Georgia. I was playing on the
7:07
Speaker 3: Atlanta Vipers at the time, and my coach like, obviously
7:12
Speaker 3: I would go to Clemson camps, but they had just
7:14
Speaker 3: started the program here, and so they were at a
7:16
Speaker 3: game and they saw me hit a home run, like
7:19
Speaker 3: into the trees or whatever, and I remember they told
7:21
Speaker 3: my coach they were like, we didn't know she had
7:22
Speaker 3: that much power. And then when I got here, I
7:25
Speaker 3: think they were looking for me mainly to just pitch. Yeah,
7:27
Speaker 3: and then the first day of practice, I was like hitting,
7:29
Speaker 3: I guess, and I had a lot of power, and
7:31
Speaker 3: they were like, yeah, we're gonna use her as a hitter.
7:34
Speaker 3: I'm a hitter.
7:35
Speaker 5: Yeah. And your first at bat in college was in
7:40
Speaker 5: the trees too, wasn't it?
7:41
Speaker 3: Wait? It was a home the first time. Yeah, my
7:43
Speaker 3: first step bat. Yeah, wow, off ole miss.
7:47
Speaker 5: Do you what you were thinking when you walked up
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Speaker 5: to the plate for your first collegiate at bat and
7:51
Speaker 5: then when you made contacts?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I just remember thinking because I'm from South Florida,
7:56
Speaker 3: like I said, so FA used like my backyard, and
7:58
Speaker 3: so all my sisters got to come, my grandparents, like
8:02
Speaker 3: on my niece and nephew. Yeah, they were all there,
8:04
Speaker 3: and so I was just like, oh, this is like
8:06
Speaker 3: kind of cool. Like my first step at I don't
8:08
Speaker 3: really get nervous, I want to say, but I definitely
8:11
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, I want to do something good and
8:12
Speaker 3: like all this work that we've been putting in, like
8:14
Speaker 3: this is the time to shine. So when I made contact,
8:18
Speaker 3: it was a change up. And yeah, it was like
8:21
Speaker 3: I just like stood there and I watched it. I
8:23
Speaker 3: was like, holy cow. Like once it hit my bat,
8:25
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, I hit it good. And then
8:27
Speaker 3: it just kept going. I was like wow. And then
8:29
Speaker 3: so actually that's running and you're like yeah, I was
8:32
Speaker 3: running and everybody was like freaking out. It was like
8:35
Speaker 3: slow motion kind of I got to like watch my
8:37
Speaker 3: coaches and they were so happy for me. So I
8:39
Speaker 3: was just like I just like reassured that why I
8:41
Speaker 3: wanted to be here at Clemson.
8:42
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, going off of that, what what about
8:45
Speaker 2: Clemson was like what made you want to come here?
8:49
Speaker 3: Yeah? I just think like the family environment and how
8:51
Speaker 3: at home I felt when I came here. I was
8:53
Speaker 3: originally committed to Duke, and then I was going to.
8:56
Speaker 1: Say, yeah, top top top recruit. Yeah.
8:58
Speaker 3: So I originally committed to Duke and then just decided
9:01
Speaker 3: that that wasn't the path I wanted to take and
9:03
Speaker 3: I wanted to be a little bit closer to home.
9:05
Speaker 3: So Clemson was always in the back of my mind.
9:08
Speaker 3: And so I just decided to call coach up one
9:10
Speaker 3: day and say, like, is my offer still on the table,
9:13
Speaker 3: And they really wanted me to come here. So I'm
9:16
Speaker 3: so glad they gave me the second chance to come here,
9:18
Speaker 3: and I just don't regret. I'll never leave this place.
9:20
Speaker 3: It's so amazing.
9:21
Speaker 4: Well that's cool.
9:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it here.
9:23
Speaker 4: That's awesome. Yeah.
9:24
Speaker 2: We were literally talking and we were like, we feel
9:26
Speaker 2: like you've been here for like so long, Like you're.
9:28
Speaker 1: Saying, yeah, you're a Clemson staple on that.
9:30
Speaker 5: Yeah.
9:31
Speaker 1: When I think of Clemson softball, I think of Macy Centron.
9:34
Speaker 4: Thank Yeah. Family is huge for you, right. Mom and
9:38
Speaker 4: dad come to every game.
9:39
Speaker 3: Every game. I don't think they've missed one. Somebody's always there,
9:42
Speaker 3: whether if my mom's with my brother or my dad,
9:44
Speaker 3: Like somebody's always there.
9:45
Speaker 4: So cool.
9:46
Speaker 1: And you guys play a lot too.
9:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:48
Speaker 3: I think we had we played fifty six plus games
9:50
Speaker 3: last year. We made postseasons, but the regular seasons was
9:53
Speaker 3: fifty six games. Was crazy game every game?
9:57
Speaker 5: Wow. Yeah.
9:58
Speaker 1: I think it's so different from because we only have
10:01
Speaker 1: like thirteen competitions in fifty to sixty Like is your
10:04
Speaker 1: body tired by the end.
10:05
Speaker 3: Of season or yeah. I mean it's totally hitting and
10:08
Speaker 3: pitching and doing.
10:09
Speaker 1: All this stuff that you do, Like it's got to
10:11
Speaker 1: be tired.
10:12
Speaker 3: It's tiring, but I think it's fun. Like every weekend
10:14
Speaker 3: we play at least three games, so I mean we'll
10:17
Speaker 3: have a tournament that might be more, but every weekend
10:19
Speaker 3: is a Friday, Saturday, Sunday series and so you play
10:22
Speaker 3: the same team three times, so it can kind of
10:24
Speaker 3: get repetitive. But at the same time, it's like, how
10:26
Speaker 3: can we better this game? And I think that as
10:29
Speaker 3: a whole, as like a team that we look forward
10:30
Speaker 3: to that and it's like not it's draining, like physically,
10:33
Speaker 3: but mentally, like you just have to stay strong to
10:35
Speaker 3: play like the three game series and then turn around
10:37
Speaker 3: and you don't do it again the next weekend. So
10:39
Speaker 3: I just think like as a whole, if you're invested
10:42
Speaker 3: in it and you want to be there, then it's
10:43
Speaker 3: like like just another day playing and it's.
10:46
Speaker 1: Kind of nice. You get to try one day, learn
10:49
Speaker 1: the information, and then try again the next day and
10:52
Speaker 1: improve improve on each day.
10:54
Speaker 3: Especially after like watching film and stuff. You might see
10:56
Speaker 3: some things that we need to tweak with the film,
10:58
Speaker 3: and then you watch the next day, you watch a
11:00
Speaker 3: new film from the day before, and it's like you
11:02
Speaker 3: actually playing, so you're not watching the other teams in
11:04
Speaker 3: the film, you know what I mean. So, and especially
11:06
Speaker 3: with pitching, like pitchers. You know, some teams could have
11:09
Speaker 3: up to seven pitchers, So scouting pitching and you know,
11:11
Speaker 3: as a hitter, knowing the defense and the offense. It's
11:14
Speaker 3: a lot. But I think like playing the same team
11:17
Speaker 3: three games in a row, you get to learn from
11:19
Speaker 3: playing them like the day before.
11:21
Speaker 1: So right, like it's so interesting to me you talk
11:24
Speaker 1: about like watching film and watching like the other team,
11:26
Speaker 1: we don't have that, like how do you what do
11:28
Speaker 1: you pick up on on the other girls? Like what
11:30
Speaker 1: do you notice in each video?
11:32
Speaker 3: So our coaches do it, like everybody goes to film,
11:35
Speaker 3: but some people love film and they want to like
11:38
Speaker 3: watch it all and plus some and some people don't
11:40
Speaker 3: want it at all. So our coaches are very awesome
11:42
Speaker 3: about just like whatever you need, we have for you.
11:45
Speaker 3: And so I just kind of I like to know
11:47
Speaker 3: the pitching obviously, but I don't like to look too
11:49
Speaker 3: much into it, just because it's a game, you know,
11:52
Speaker 3: so it's not always going to be the same. And
11:54
Speaker 3: I find whenever I would look too much into the
11:56
Speaker 3: pitching and you know, I'm gonna hit this pitch at
11:59
Speaker 3: this in this and all this stuff, then you start
12:01
Speaker 3: thinking too much and it takes away from just playing
12:03
Speaker 3: the game and like your reaction skills. So I mean,
12:06
Speaker 3: I definitely like look into it a little bit, but
12:08
Speaker 3: I just some of it. I just let in one
12:10
Speaker 3: ear and go out the other.
12:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was wondering if there are certain patterns that
12:13
Speaker 1: you like pick up on, like this certain picture there's
12:16
Speaker 1: the change up.
12:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, like we'll do like like this picture might be
12:19
Speaker 3: more upspin, so rise ball and the other girl might
12:21
Speaker 3: be drop. Also like going into the game. Let's say
12:23
Speaker 3: they switch pictures and I'm up to bat, I'll go
12:26
Speaker 3: up to my coach and he'll be like hey, this
12:27
Speaker 3: is the downspin girl. She has a change up or
12:30
Speaker 3: she doesn't have a change up, So you know, changing speeds,
12:33
Speaker 3: especially so if the pictures mainly change up, you have
12:36
Speaker 3: to know, like you know you're going to get two speeds,
12:39
Speaker 3: whereas if somebody's just throwing fast, then you're fine sitting
12:42
Speaker 3: on one, you know, one speed. So I think it
12:45
Speaker 3: just depends on you know what the picture is or
12:48
Speaker 3: you know what team we're playing.
12:49
Speaker 2: Also, so I feel like there comes to a point though, too,
12:52
Speaker 2: where you're just like if you think about it too much,
12:55
Speaker 2: like you said, like then you're thinking about like so
12:57
Speaker 2: many things to be perfect, right, like even for will
13:00
Speaker 2: be like okay, this is like everything that you have
13:02
Speaker 2: open for like an attack or like a shot, and
13:04
Speaker 2: then you're thinking like, okay, when do I use it though,
13:06
Speaker 2: or like when do I do that?
13:07
Speaker 4: So like, but sometimes you just have to plan.
13:09
Speaker 3: You're trying to time your jump and everything. It's like
13:10
Speaker 3: too much to think about it one time.
13:12
Speaker 2: So exactly I can't overthink, no, is that kind of
13:16
Speaker 2: like your mindset just like playing, you're just like trying
13:19
Speaker 2: to compete obviously not like overanalyze, overthink anything, but like
13:22
Speaker 2: still trying to be true to you and you as
13:24
Speaker 2: a player.
13:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just think like trying to compete every time
13:27
Speaker 3: you're out there. I think that says a lot. And
13:29
Speaker 3: like just knowing like, hey, I'm going out here to
13:31
Speaker 3: win and you're gonna fall short sometimes, but just going
13:34
Speaker 3: out there and competing every time. I think that's all,
13:37
Speaker 3: you know, I go out there and think about I
13:40
Speaker 3: just yeah, I think that's all a coach can want
13:41
Speaker 3: too in a player is like somebody who's just going
13:43
Speaker 3: to compete every time, Like you might not get the
13:45
Speaker 3: job done, but that's the player they want in the
13:47
Speaker 3: situation when you need you know, basis loaded too outs
13:50
Speaker 3: like who do you want up to bat? And it's
13:51
Speaker 3: like I want to be that player for my coach.
13:53
Speaker 3: So I just think that that's what I think about
13:55
Speaker 3: every time I'm going out there.
13:56
Speaker 1: How would you describe your playing style?
13:59
Speaker 5: Yeah?
14:00
Speaker 3: Wow, I think I'm very competitive, Like I always want
14:04
Speaker 3: to win and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to
14:05
Speaker 3: win and I'm gonna outwork the person next to me.
14:08
Speaker 3: But I also want to have fun, you know, so
14:10
Speaker 3: compete with fun, you know, just mix it up. If
14:12
Speaker 3: you're not having fun, then I don't know why you
14:14
Speaker 3: would do it, you know, And I think coming here,
14:16
Speaker 3: especially like the coaches in this environment, has like reinstilled
14:20
Speaker 3: that fun of the game for me. Like you know,
14:22
Speaker 3: in high school, it can get repetitive, like you go
14:24
Speaker 3: from you know, travel season in the summer straight into
14:27
Speaker 3: high school ball and then you know, straight back into
14:30
Speaker 3: travel ball. So I think here is like it does
14:33
Speaker 3: get repetitive, but it's like fun while you're doing it,
14:35
Speaker 3: And I think that being here did reinstill that like
14:38
Speaker 3: having fun in the game for awesome.
14:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, how would you describe the Clemson softball team.
14:44
Speaker 3: I think we're goofy but very competitive and what we're
14:47
Speaker 3: gonna get the job done. But I think our coaches
14:49
Speaker 3: do a good job of letting us be us and
14:51
Speaker 3: not cookie cutting, like every player to be the same,
14:54
Speaker 3: and we do have some personality on the team, so
14:57
Speaker 3: like I just think everybody there are self like themselves,
15:01
Speaker 3: and I think that that creates like this beautiful team
15:03
Speaker 3: and like how we can all you know, have our
15:06
Speaker 3: quirks and everybody can be however they want to be
15:08
Speaker 3: and it's just accepted here. So I think that also
15:11
Speaker 3: creates like a free environment and people can play and
15:14
Speaker 3: be free and they don't have to like think about what,
15:16
Speaker 3: oh what is coach going to say if I make
15:18
Speaker 3: a joke or you know. So I think the coaches
15:20
Speaker 3: create that great space for us.
15:22
Speaker 1: How would your teammates describe you?
15:26
Speaker 3: I think they would say, I'm very confident and honest
15:30
Speaker 3: and I'm here to get like work hard, and I
15:32
Speaker 3: think competitive also, competitive was probably the main word.
15:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, Mac is competitive, very competitive. I don't like losing.
15:40
Speaker 6: I like that you say confident too. I feel like
15:42
Speaker 6: confidence is such a huge piece that a lot of
15:44
Speaker 6: people don't have or it waivers, which is understandable. But
15:47
Speaker 6: where do you think your confidence comes from?
15:49
Speaker 3: My mom she always I the tiger. I A the tiger.
15:52
Speaker 3: When you're on the mound, I A the tiger. And
15:54
Speaker 3: so actually that's kind of funny now that I'm here. Yeah,
15:58
Speaker 3: so my grandma always said that. My mom always said that,
16:00
Speaker 3: And I just think, like my mom always told me, like,
16:02
Speaker 3: when you're on the mound or you're in the box,
16:04
Speaker 3: you're there to beat the picture. You're there to beat
16:05
Speaker 3: the like beat the hitter. And you know, the people
16:09
Speaker 3: watching the game shouldn't know if your team's winning, if
16:11
Speaker 3: your team's losing, like if you're having a good day
16:14
Speaker 3: a bad day, like you should be stonefaced and like
16:17
Speaker 3: you get the job done. And so I think, like
16:19
Speaker 3: my teammates always think, like before after they meet me,
16:21
Speaker 3: they're like, oh my god, you're so nice. But before
16:24
Speaker 3: that they were like, oh my god, like you scared me,
16:26
Speaker 3: like your face you had like such a bad RBF.
16:29
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I'm so sorry, but like I'm actually
16:32
Speaker 3: like a nice person. But everybody thinks I'm always like
16:35
Speaker 3: you know, like super either cocky or like overly confident.
16:38
Speaker 3: But I just think, like when I'm in the circle
16:40
Speaker 3: or in the box, like it's my time to get
16:42
Speaker 3: the job done and then after that we can be
16:44
Speaker 3: friends type of thing. Yeah, so yeah, I.
16:45
Speaker 5: Think didn't we talk about that in TLA because we're
16:48
Speaker 5: both d's your face was and I remember having the
16:51
Speaker 5: thought like is Macy hating? But now that I know, yeah,
16:56
Speaker 5: I love it, And.
16:56
Speaker 3: I'm like thinking, but everybody thinks, I'm like.
16:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know you said that, Like as soon
17:01
Speaker 5: as we were talking about it, you knew that, So
17:03
Speaker 5: I was like, Okay, this makes more sense.
17:05
Speaker 4: But when I didn't know you when you're talking about it.
17:07
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, can you give us an impression
17:11
Speaker 1: of your intimidation face, like when you're up on the mountain.
17:14
Speaker 3: Like I just think it's like very like flat, like
17:18
Speaker 3: you know, and then I'm getting chilled. I don't know.
17:21
Speaker 3: People say I have like beady eyes or something. I
17:23
Speaker 3: don't know, Like I'm just like I.
17:25
Speaker 1: Am the tiger.
17:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, like red lights too, like you know, and you're
17:28
Speaker 2: like in the zone and you're just like this is
17:30
Speaker 2: like the only thing I can focus on, and like
17:32
Speaker 2: you're just like in the zone.
17:33
Speaker 4: Like I found that. I'm like picturing when.
17:35
Speaker 1: You're focused, like your face changes like cling. I had
17:39
Speaker 1: my coach tell me the other day, relax your face,
17:42
Speaker 1: like remember what you're doing is fun. And I'm like
17:45
Speaker 1: just so focused that I like give a blank stare
17:47
Speaker 1: or something like that.
17:48
Speaker 4: I don't know, but sometimes it helps, Like it does help.
17:51
Speaker 2: If you're just like it, like so focused, then you
17:54
Speaker 2: like have no choice to like actually be present in
17:56
Speaker 2: the moment, like do your job and intimidate other people too.
18:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, it might help a little bit. I thought about that.
18:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, if I was a batter, Yeah, yeah, I have
18:05
Speaker 4: the tiger face.
18:07
Speaker 1: We were talking to Aiden and how he stares down
18:09
Speaker 1: people in between his gloves too. He said that, I
18:12
Speaker 1: don't know, I guess that works.
18:14
Speaker 5: Yeah.
18:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, A lot of it's mental too, like if you
18:16
Speaker 3: can mentally beat a batter, or like when you're pitching
18:19
Speaker 3: or mentally beat a pitcher. You know, that goes a
18:21
Speaker 3: long way, especially in our sport, which is like you
18:24
Speaker 3: fail most of the time in softball and baseball, So
18:27
Speaker 3: like if you already are mentally on top of somebody else,
18:30
Speaker 3: then I think that like you're already winning.
18:32
Speaker 5: I love that you said that, because I think failure.
18:35
Speaker 5: No one likes talking about failure, but I mean one,
18:39
Speaker 5: athletes fail all the time, but especially in baseball and softball, right,
18:42
Speaker 5: Like if you're a three hundred batter, that means you
18:44
Speaker 5: only hit three out of ten balls, right like at bats?
18:48
Speaker 4: How do you look at failure?
18:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just think it can help you grow as
18:52
Speaker 3: a player and as a person too, So I always
18:55
Speaker 3: look at it like obviously, like you said, like you
18:57
Speaker 3: bet a three hundred, you could be an All American
19:00
Speaker 3: and like nobody really talks about that, Like their batting
19:02
Speaker 3: average was a three fifty, Like that's like so good,
19:04
Speaker 3: But like what about the seven other at bats when
19:06
Speaker 3: they got out or you know, struck out whatever. So
19:10
Speaker 3: I just think like if as a whole, like we
19:12
Speaker 3: can look at like a three hundred batting average as successful,
19:15
Speaker 3: So why would I look at the seven other ones
19:17
Speaker 3: that are failures when I can look at the three
19:19
Speaker 3: that were successful? And I just think that not dwelling
19:23
Speaker 3: on the failure can help you be more successful overall,
19:26
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Yeah?
19:27
Speaker 4: Oh yeah. Also, just like how hard your sport is.
19:30
Speaker 3: It's really hard.
19:32
Speaker 4: Like, right, is really good?
19:35
Speaker 1: Wait, that's insane to think about action.
19:37
Speaker 3: Say, yeah, like if if we like correlated that in
19:39
Speaker 3: the classroom, like that'd be tacket Like I got a
19:42
Speaker 3: thirty on a test or like a thirty on a
19:44
Speaker 3: ten question quiz, like you got three right, But like
19:46
Speaker 3: in softball and baseball, that's like really good.
19:48
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah, all American. The difference between all American
19:52
Speaker 1: not I feel like it's so slim.
19:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
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20:24
Speaker 5: Now back to the show, to go back to like
20:27
Speaker 5: what you said about like when you're pitching or like hitting,
20:29
Speaker 5: like you can like make it up. So I feel
20:31
Speaker 5: like for you, it's like cool that you can like
20:32
Speaker 5: kind of like you're pitching, like you're focused on that,
20:35
Speaker 5: then you can kind of like reset and like.
20:36
Speaker 2: Then focus on hitting too. Like that's kind of like
20:39
Speaker 2: a cool part about softball that I feel like a
20:41
Speaker 2: lot of sports don't really have.
20:42
Speaker 3: Yeah cool.
20:44
Speaker 1: I used to think baseball like everyone was just standing
20:46
Speaker 1: around until it was their time to.
20:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, time to hit.
20:51
Speaker 1: Yeah.
20:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, softball seems to be a little bit more quick,
20:54
Speaker 5: more fast paced.
20:55
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure. We don't like fix our batting gloves
20:58
Speaker 3: for a minute in between. There's a pitch now, so
21:00
Speaker 3: we have twenty seconds, right, and so it's a lot quicker.
21:03
Speaker 1: Abby was talking in college.
21:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a pitch clock, so and travel ball like
21:07
Speaker 3: it's not like that, but they try to keep the
21:09
Speaker 3: game going. But here in college, like by the time
21:11
Speaker 3: the ball gets back in the picture circle, the pictuer has,
21:14
Speaker 3: the batter has ten seconds to be in the box,
21:16
Speaker 3: and the pitcher has twenty seconds to be delivering the pitch.
21:20
Speaker 3: So by the time it gets down to zero, the
21:21
Speaker 3: ball needs to be crossing the plate.
21:23
Speaker 1: That's a time to prepare.
21:26
Speaker 3: No, And that's like not that's including the time the
21:28
Speaker 3: coach has to give a sign to the runners to
21:31
Speaker 3: the hitters. Like all that has to be done in
21:33
Speaker 3: the twenty seconds.
21:34
Speaker 1: You guys have something electronic on your wrist that tells
21:36
Speaker 1: you so.
21:37
Speaker 3: That's a pitch comp No. The so we do we
21:40
Speaker 3: do like manual signs, like our coach does that with hitting.
21:42
Speaker 3: But last year we did do like a little play
21:45
Speaker 3: sign for like first and third plays or like you
21:47
Speaker 3: know when there's runners on base, or like bunt coverages
21:51
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. But for pitching, we have the
21:54
Speaker 3: electric pitch comp gotch and that'll it'll say the pitch
21:57
Speaker 3: on there for the pictures. But that's only picture and catcher.
21:59
Speaker 4: God as cool.
22:04
Speaker 3: That's like a new thing that they just it used
22:06
Speaker 3: to be just like a grid of like I don't know,
22:09
Speaker 3: like twenty by like five or something, and it was
22:14
Speaker 3: like a grid and they'd be like twenty two three
22:16
Speaker 3: and you'd go over to twenty two down three And
22:18
Speaker 3: now they just pick it. Yeah, but that like now
22:21
Speaker 3: it's in college, like since we have more you know,
22:23
Speaker 3: money and stuff to buy stuff. I guess that's what
22:25
Speaker 3: they do now. It just says like curveball and you
22:28
Speaker 3: are curveball outside.
22:30
Speaker 4: Oh, it just says the whole words.
22:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, it could be abbreviated, but like rises such a
22:34
Speaker 3: short word. It just says like rise in or like
22:37
Speaker 3: rise way up. And yeah, you can put whatever you
22:39
Speaker 3: want on there.
22:40
Speaker 1: You don't have to. But can you explain the fastball
22:44
Speaker 1: the curveball.
22:46
Speaker 3: Like which way they go? Yeah, okay, so obviously rise
22:49
Speaker 3: goes up and drop goes down.
22:50
Speaker 5: Yeah.
22:51
Speaker 3: So those are normally like probably the harder pitches to hit,
22:56
Speaker 3: just because normally they don't break straight like up and
22:59
Speaker 3: straight down. They'll be yet like angles. And then the
23:02
Speaker 3: same thing with curve and screw. Curve ball goes away
23:04
Speaker 3: from a right handed hitter, okay, and into a leftytch.
23:08
Speaker 3: So if like that's home plate, it would be like
23:11
Speaker 3: cutting that way I see with a righty picture, and
23:14
Speaker 3: then a screwball goes that way and a fastball is
23:16
Speaker 3: just straight.
23:17
Speaker 1: I feel like that's so I mean, it works, but
23:20
Speaker 1: I feel like that's so unfair, Like why can't.
23:22
Speaker 4: You just throw the so I for the hitter.
23:25
Speaker 3: I know, I just.
23:27
Speaker 1: Don't understand like the dynamics of like a ball and
23:30
Speaker 1: how it counter rotates and all of that stuff, Like
23:32
Speaker 1: that's so hard to hit.
23:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, you grip the ball.
23:36
Speaker 3: Grip and hand placement, angles with your body things like that. Yeah,
23:41
Speaker 3: it's a lot.
23:42
Speaker 1: But we saw like a stop motion thing of someone
23:45
Speaker 1: trying to like hit a ball or something. The body
23:47
Speaker 1: was like contorted and like five different.
23:49
Speaker 3: Ways some of the like things that they'll post. It's
23:52
Speaker 3: like an action shot. I'm like, oh my god, I
23:54
Speaker 3: need to report this post. It's your arm is like
23:57
Speaker 3: all the way this way. It looks like a contortion,
24:01
Speaker 3: but it doesn't look like that in real life. Just
24:02
Speaker 3: like when they take the picture, you're like in this
24:04
Speaker 3: weird zero.
24:07
Speaker 2: I feel like that makes it, like like you said,
24:09
Speaker 2: like you really can't scout that. No, Like that's just
24:11
Speaker 2: like something you just kind of have to like go to.
24:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, can you talk to us a bit about your
24:16
Speaker 1: international career. Yeah, with baseball team. I know you played
24:19
Speaker 1: for Puerto Rico at the age of thirteen. Talk to
24:22
Speaker 1: us about that.
24:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they reached out to me to play on
24:26
Speaker 3: the junior team when I was thirteen, and so I
24:28
Speaker 3: played in LA in the Junior World Cup when I
24:31
Speaker 3: was thirteen, and I was the youngest player there and yeah,
24:35
Speaker 3: and then I just continued playing with them, and then
24:37
Speaker 3: I got called up to the national team, like the
24:40
Speaker 3: women's team when I was seventeen, I think. And so
24:44
Speaker 3: I've been playing with them in the Pan American Games,
24:46
Speaker 3: we've meddled in and then most recently we played in
24:49
Speaker 3: the World Cup in China. And so that's insane.
24:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy amount of places you've been able to travel.
24:56
Speaker 3: We travel like a lot. So it's like every year
24:58
Speaker 3: there's like new tournaments, some in the summer, some in
25:00
Speaker 3: the winter. Normally the Pan American Games are in like
25:03
Speaker 3: the winter times, and countries can host tournaments for points,
25:08
Speaker 3: so like we'll go play in like another country that
25:10
Speaker 3: they'll host like a tournament with a lot of the
25:12
Speaker 3: Latin American teams. And then for example, like when they
25:15
Speaker 3: have like a big tournament. This is like people have
25:17
Speaker 3: to qualify for the tournament. So we qualified to go
25:20
Speaker 3: play in China, and we played in Columbia as well
25:23
Speaker 3: before that.
25:23
Speaker 1: That's awesome. How do you handle that with school? Like
25:26
Speaker 1: in the Winter Games? Yeah, so even like in the summer.
25:29
Speaker 3: So I obviously asked my coaches if I can go,
25:32
Speaker 3: and they were like, yeah, go ahead, and so I went.
25:34
Speaker 3: They were like super excited for me and I went.
25:36
Speaker 3: But like over the summer, you're supposed to take like
25:38
Speaker 3: you know, some sort of a break, yeah, and over
25:41
Speaker 3: like Christmas break too, But I mean take like a
25:43
Speaker 3: couple of weeks off and then get back to training.
25:45
Speaker 3: But because I was playing in the summer, I didn't
25:47
Speaker 3: have that time off. So that's why I had to
25:49
Speaker 3: ask my coaches, and you know, it was my time off,
25:52
Speaker 3: but I thought that this was like this was like
25:54
Speaker 3: a great opportunity for me, like to like evolve me
25:57
Speaker 3: as a player too. So I just think, like not
26:00
Speaker 3: taking that break it could have had some consequences too,
26:03
Speaker 3: Like when I came back, like my body was just
26:04
Speaker 3: physically like tired. But my coaches did a great job
26:07
Speaker 3: of like giving me my time off. When I got here,
26:10
Speaker 3: which they didn't have to do, Like I could have
26:12
Speaker 3: just came back and like, but they definitely like let
26:14
Speaker 3: me take it easy for a couple of weeks and
26:16
Speaker 3: then we got back into the swing of things, which
26:17
Speaker 3: I think is like really special. It's not a lot
26:19
Speaker 3: of coaches would do that.
26:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so nice to have coaches that understand where
26:23
Speaker 1: you're going to and like you're already trying to better
26:26
Speaker 1: yourself as a player too, So them willing to work
26:28
Speaker 1: with you says a lot about them.
26:29
Speaker 3: And my coach, coach Ritman, he coached the USA team
26:32
Speaker 3: for a couple of years, so he like knows the
26:34
Speaker 3: Olympic Games and how like important it is and how
26:37
Speaker 3: it runs, so he knows like how draining draining it
26:39
Speaker 3: is on your body and so and we don't have
26:42
Speaker 3: like all the things we have here when we're playing
26:44
Speaker 3: over there, right, you know, we don't have like the
26:45
Speaker 3: whole training stuff, like all the nutrition and recovery stuff.
26:49
Speaker 3: So it's like super hard to like recover when you're
26:53
Speaker 3: playing overseas because it's hard to bring all the stuff
26:56
Speaker 3: with you to it. Don't have it.
26:59
Speaker 5: Over there.
26:59
Speaker 1: They don't the arc over there.
27:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like even like bringing Norma texts and stuff.
27:03
Speaker 3: It's like you already have so much luggage and equipment,
27:06
Speaker 3: so it's like a lot to bring more recovery stuff.
27:08
Speaker 3: So I just think like they definitely understood, like that
27:11
Speaker 3: my body was tired and that I needed a break
27:13
Speaker 3: when I came back, and I think that that was
27:15
Speaker 3: like super special.
27:17
Speaker 4: Are the Olympics on your radar?
27:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely would want to play in twenty twenty eight,
27:22
Speaker 3: Like that's obviously like a dream, Like very few people
27:25
Speaker 3: ever get to say that they've played in the Olympics,
27:27
Speaker 3: So I'm definitely working hard towards that and I hope
27:30
Speaker 3: I get selected to play on that team.
27:32
Speaker 4: So and it's in LA.
27:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, so well, they actually just announced that the Olympics
27:38
Speaker 3: for softball will be in Oklahoma.
27:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, not in LA.
27:41
Speaker 3: So I want get to go to like opening ceremonies
27:44
Speaker 3: or closing ceremonies or anything like that, or stay in
27:46
Speaker 3: the village, which is kind of sad, so I think
27:49
Speaker 3: because the still get a medal. Yeah, but their home
27:53
Speaker 3: field is like USA's home field is in Oklahoma, so
27:56
Speaker 3: we'll play there, and then I think like a lot
28:00
Speaker 3: of countries weren't happy about that, because you know, the
28:03
Speaker 3: whole everybody wants to experience being in the village and stuff.
28:05
Speaker 3: But I think like until people qualify and know which
28:09
Speaker 3: teams are going to the Olympics, you can't really argue
28:11
Speaker 3: if you're not if you don't know if you're going
28:12
Speaker 3: to be there, you know what I mean. So they
28:14
Speaker 3: have to wait and see until like which teams are
28:17
Speaker 3: going to qualify.
28:17
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you right now, I'm I'm from Los Angeles.
28:21
Speaker 1: I don't think they have the infrastructure for all of this.
28:24
Speaker 1: I am terrified of the so busy, the traffic that is.
28:27
Speaker 3: Like we played in the tournament every year in Huntington
28:29
Speaker 3: Beach and I mean that was crazy. Like we always
28:32
Speaker 3: like did not fly to the Lax Airport because it
28:35
Speaker 3: was like so busy in LA So I could only
28:36
Speaker 3: imagine having like all the teams there.
28:40
Speaker 1: I have no idea what it's going to look like.
28:42
Speaker 1: It's going to be, Like I just imagine La fire,
28:45
Speaker 1: like I don't know, not like the no, no, not
28:49
Speaker 1: like that, but like just very yeah, like La is
28:53
Speaker 1: already chaotic, But I can't imagine it's going to take
28:56
Speaker 1: you like five hours to go like down the block yeah,
28:58
Speaker 1: my god, you mean same? So fun?
29:01
Speaker 2: What has like that like overall experience, like playing internationally
29:05
Speaker 2: and like going overseas and playing, Like how is that
29:07
Speaker 2: like impacted your game?
29:09
Speaker 4: You know, and like how have you brought it back
29:10
Speaker 4: to Clemson.
29:11
Speaker 3: It's definitely really different than playing like here because you
29:14
Speaker 3: don't have like all the scouting and all that stuff.
29:16
Speaker 3: But I think like playing with people who I've looked
29:19
Speaker 3: up to growing up, Like a lot of my teammates
29:22
Speaker 3: played in college when I was growing up, so like
29:25
Speaker 3: they're playing professional now, and I think like being around
29:28
Speaker 3: them and seeing like what they do before games, like
29:30
Speaker 3: their mentality and things like that has helped me like
29:33
Speaker 3: transfer that here and like they're professional athletes now and
29:37
Speaker 3: that's something I aspire to be like after I leave here.
29:39
Speaker 3: So I think like watching them and like learning from them,
29:42
Speaker 3: like every day is like super important, especially being with them,
29:45
Speaker 3: like for an extended amount of time you get to
29:47
Speaker 3: see like what they eat, like you know, things like
29:50
Speaker 3: you don't really think about, like watching a professional athlete.
29:52
Speaker 3: So I think like that stuff, especially like the mentality
29:56
Speaker 3: and like the grind that they have and like things
29:59
Speaker 3: that they do pre give to help them perform is
30:01
Speaker 3: like super important and something that like I'll definitely take
30:03
Speaker 3: away from playing.
30:04
Speaker 1: And it's nice to have older, like more mature people
30:07
Speaker 1: on our team.
30:07
Speaker 3: I mean to teach the ropes. Yeah, they're like twenty
30:09
Speaker 3: eight to thirty, and like they've been doing this for
30:12
Speaker 3: a while. Like I think my body's tired. Like they're
30:14
Speaker 3: like way older than me, like ten years plus, you know.
30:18
Speaker 3: So that like that's like crazy to me. Like how
30:21
Speaker 3: they're still playing. I don't know how they do it.
30:22
Speaker 1: Didn't Professional softball just like recently start to.
30:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, So like the AUSL just partnered with the MLB,
30:29
Speaker 3: so like the money now is a lot more and
30:32
Speaker 3: it's like before we were making like maybe you know,
30:35
Speaker 3: ten grand a season and like that's not something you
30:38
Speaker 3: can afford to live off of. And so I think
30:40
Speaker 3: women's sports as a whole is like starting to jump
30:42
Speaker 3: up a lot. And also, like with softball, I think
30:45
Speaker 3: it's like we got more viewers on the College World
30:48
Speaker 3: Series than baseball did what and like so barely yeah
30:51
Speaker 3: and like crazy viewership and we like barely make any
30:55
Speaker 3: money playing professional softball unless you have like some sort
30:58
Speaker 3: of like nil deal or like partnership and it's still
31:01
Speaker 3: not nearly as much as the men make. But I
31:03
Speaker 3: mean I think that like within itself, like now having
31:07
Speaker 3: partnership with the MLB and like they're helping us out.
31:10
Speaker 3: I think that'll like within the next year and by
31:11
Speaker 3: the time I will like be there to play, I
31:14
Speaker 3: think it will be like outrageous and like we just
31:16
Speaker 3: signed a couple of years ago our first million dollar contract,
31:19
Speaker 3: and that was like a big thing in softball, Like
31:22
Speaker 3: Monica Abbott signed the first but she's like Team USA,
31:26
Speaker 3: like four time All American, Like she was insane. Her
31:29
Speaker 3: resume it's stacked, and she made a million dollars, right,
31:33
Speaker 3: So like you're sitting here and we're like this is
31:36
Speaker 3: like crazy. But now you have Nija Kennedy at Texas Tech.
31:39
Speaker 3: She's making a million dollars plus and she just re
31:42
Speaker 3: signed with Patrick Mahomes and all they're helping her house.
31:45
Speaker 3: So I mean, like that's just like a testimony to
31:48
Speaker 3: like it's like progressing and now kids in college are
31:50
Speaker 3: making that. So I just think, like how much we've
31:53
Speaker 3: grown into a short amount of time is crazy.
31:55
Speaker 1: Everyone's watching women's sports.
31:56
Speaker 5: Yeah it so we talked a lot about softball. Yeah,
32:01
Speaker 5: you also, I love you went to Costa Rica this summer.
32:04
Speaker 5: I did you signed up for a service trip?
32:06
Speaker 3: I did?
32:06
Speaker 4: What was that? Like, why'd you do it?
32:08
Speaker 3: I signed up? Well, Riley Burton, my teammate, told me
32:11
Speaker 3: about it. I didn't even know about it. And I
32:13
Speaker 3: also went on mission trips in high school and I
32:15
Speaker 3: loved it, like being with the kids, like it just
32:18
Speaker 3: like tugged at my heart that I wanted to go again.
32:20
Speaker 3: And so when this opportunity like came up and it
32:23
Speaker 3: was to Costa Rica, obviously, like I speak a little
32:26
Speaker 3: bit of Spanish, so like it, I was comfortable going
32:28
Speaker 3: to that country, and I think it also helped me
32:31
Speaker 3: come out of my comfort zone because like obviously going
32:34
Speaker 3: to somewhere where you know, there's not as much running
32:38
Speaker 3: water and you're staying in a host family's house, like
32:40
Speaker 3: things like that were things I was nervous about going
32:42
Speaker 3: into the trip, and like after like going, I was
32:45
Speaker 3: like I would go ten times over again, like it
32:47
Speaker 3: was so amazing. Yeah, even like the work days where
32:50
Speaker 3: it was like you would get up at six in
32:51
Speaker 3: the morning and you want to get back to your
32:53
Speaker 3: house until like eight or nine o'clock at night, like
32:56
Speaker 3: that was all worth it, like playing with the kids
32:58
Speaker 3: and seeing like how grateful they are for like the
33:01
Speaker 3: little things that they have.
33:02
Speaker 1: So my teammate Rebecca she as well, and she came
33:05
Speaker 1: back and was telling us how like they had to
33:07
Speaker 1: shower with like a bucket like the and I think
33:10
Speaker 1: those are things that we just take for granted, you know,
33:13
Speaker 1: And so it's cool getting that perspective and going over
33:15
Speaker 1: there and seeing what other people live like and like
33:18
Speaker 1: coming back with a sense of gratitude.
33:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we're like, you know, we're like, oh my god,
33:22
Speaker 3: there's no Chick fil A, there's no starlight, but all
33:24
Speaker 3: this stuff and I'm like that is such like, you know,
33:28
Speaker 3: things that we don't need to have, and we're like
33:30
Speaker 3: that's like a normal thing for us. And so seeing
33:32
Speaker 3: them being so grateful and so like happy with the
33:35
Speaker 3: little things that they had, it was like really eye opening.
33:38
Speaker 3: And that's like every trip I've been on. It's just
33:40
Speaker 3: like when you come back, you're like you feel like
33:42
Speaker 3: way more grateful for what we have here.
33:45
Speaker 4: Did you do this? If planning?
33:47
Speaker 3: We did?
33:47
Speaker 4: It was videos.
33:50
Speaker 1: Scary, scared the line is ever gonna drop?
33:52
Speaker 3: I Mean it was scary because like it was like
33:54
Speaker 3: what a mile long on like your stomach you had
33:57
Speaker 3: to lay in Superman.
33:59
Speaker 1: Oh wait, I think Rebecca told me about like.
34:01
Speaker 4: It was like drop swing to Yeah.
34:04
Speaker 3: I did not do that. That was too much stomach
34:07
Speaker 3: is that was crazy?
34:07
Speaker 4: Yeah?
34:08
Speaker 3: That was crazy. That was too much for me, But
34:09
Speaker 3: I did. Like there was ten lines and then they
34:12
Speaker 3: progressively got longer and the last one was a mile
34:15
Speaker 3: long on your stomach like arms out like Superman.
34:19
Speaker 1: So you're flying.
34:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, you were flying. But it was the most beautiful views,
34:23
Speaker 3: like the mountains and like the trees. Everything was so beautiful.
34:26
Speaker 3: You saw like the water underneath you. It was so
34:28
Speaker 3: beautiful you just had to like look around one of them.
34:31
Speaker 3: We tried to like hold a point five video. I
34:34
Speaker 3: was too scared to hold my phone, so my teammates
34:37
Speaker 3: in front of me held it. But it was like
34:39
Speaker 3: the most beautiful video ever.
34:40
Speaker 1: And it's definitely roped my phone.
34:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was like the most beautiful experience.
34:48
Speaker 1: Definitely needed a go pro maybe.
34:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, GoPro would have been better. Better.
34:54
Speaker 1: Was the food good? Did you try any other like
34:57
Speaker 1: foods that you wouldn't ever normally try?
35:00
Speaker 3: Well, I'm like not picky with food at all, so,
35:02
Speaker 3: I mean maybe people who were more picky, but there
35:05
Speaker 3: was like a lot of we got we had some
35:06
Speaker 3: off time in the afternoon, so they would like drop
35:09
Speaker 3: us off at like the city square and we'd go
35:10
Speaker 3: around and like try new restaurants and stuff. But at
35:13
Speaker 3: our host family house, they cooked like authentic Costa Rican food,
35:17
Speaker 3: so that was like cool that we got to try that.
35:19
Speaker 3: And then the first day we got there, like from
35:20
Speaker 3: the airport, they took us like right to like an
35:22
Speaker 3: authentic restaurant and we got to try like a bunch
35:24
Speaker 3: of stuff. So that was cool too.
35:26
Speaker 4: That's awesome cool.
35:27
Speaker 1: How is it living with a host family too? Were
35:29
Speaker 1: you kind of like, oh, I'm in someone else's house,
35:32
Speaker 1: Like it was great?
35:34
Speaker 3: It was different, Like I would say, I wasn't like
35:37
Speaker 3: I was just a little nervous because I didn't like
35:39
Speaker 3: what to expect is my first time doing it. But
35:41
Speaker 3: I was like kind of like I would say, like
35:44
Speaker 3: more curious, yeah to like, you know, am I allowed
35:48
Speaker 3: to like do this? Am I allowed to do this
35:49
Speaker 3: type of thing? You know? But they were like so amazing.
35:52
Speaker 3: They had hosted foreign exchange students before, so they had
35:55
Speaker 3: signed up for it, and there was three different houses,
35:58
Speaker 3: so we weren't all in the same house. So there
35:59
Speaker 3: was like a group of us and there was three
36:02
Speaker 3: houses I think, so the bus would come in the
36:04
Speaker 3: morning pick one house up and so that was like
36:09
Speaker 3: kind of cool and you got to talk and like
36:11
Speaker 3: they told us places we should go try and like
36:13
Speaker 3: what's around here, and they ended up we went to
36:16
Speaker 3: this flea market that was like a bunch of local
36:18
Speaker 3: people who had made stuff and they told us about that,
36:20
Speaker 3: which was cool. So we got to go buy stuff
36:22
Speaker 3: from like the local market.
36:23
Speaker 4: That's so fun.
36:24
Speaker 1: How long were you there for?
36:25
Speaker 3: We were there for I think a week total, like
36:28
Speaker 3: including travel days. So it's awesome.
36:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, shout out to student at the development.
36:33
Speaker 3: That's great?
36:34
Speaker 1: Was that a student athlete development like mission trip thing
36:38
Speaker 1: that was put on service Trip Service Trip. Okay, wait,
36:42
Speaker 1: I want to go.
36:44
Speaker 5: Sign.
36:46
Speaker 1: Can do you have any intel on where you guys
36:48
Speaker 1: are going this year? No, no secrets, you can tell
36:51
Speaker 1: me secrets. Sorry, need to work on it. Can you
36:55
Speaker 1: talk to us about Tiger Leadership Academy? Yeah, a little bit.
36:59
Speaker 3: So I just started this a couple of weeks ago.
37:01
Speaker 3: We started, and I've definitely learned a lot already. Like
37:04
Speaker 3: from for me, like personally, we did this personality like
37:08
Speaker 3: survey thing and they give us like this book and
37:11
Speaker 3: it's like literally you and you can read pages and
37:14
Speaker 3: pages and pages about you as a person.
37:16
Speaker 1: Is it like an enneagram disc?
37:19
Speaker 5: Ok?
37:19
Speaker 3: I had done the enneagram before and that was accurate,
37:22
Speaker 3: but this was like way more in depth and it
37:24
Speaker 3: kind of told you about it. And so we've been
37:26
Speaker 3: like talking through like you know, how this person would
37:28
Speaker 3: handle this situation and how this group and so it's
37:31
Speaker 3: been like really eye opening and like the things that
37:34
Speaker 3: I struggle with that I know I struggle with is
37:36
Speaker 3: like things that we've called out in TLA, and I
37:38
Speaker 3: think that that has helped me as like growing as
37:41
Speaker 3: a person and as a leader on my team. So
37:43
Speaker 3: I think that this was like definitely something that's gonna
37:45
Speaker 3: help me as a leader on my team.
37:47
Speaker 1: What type of personality trait like do you have?
37:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm a d which what does that say?
37:51
Speaker 4: Dominant?
37:52
Speaker 5: Yeah?
37:52
Speaker 3: Dominant? So like in the room, I'm gonna like take charge.
37:55
Speaker 3: I think the animal words like a great white shark
37:58
Speaker 3: and a lion, so like you can compare, but.
38:00
Speaker 4: We should say tiger.
38:01
Speaker 1: We should say tiger.
38:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it's interesting because I've been doing disc for
38:07
Speaker 5: a very long time and usually in student athlete groups,
38:10
Speaker 5: really groups in general, there's very few people that have
38:13
Speaker 5: the D style. So it's just cool too that you know,
38:16
Speaker 5: you are obviously one. There might be one other person
38:18
Speaker 5: in there that does, but it's rare. But it's also
38:22
Speaker 5: a style that is going to make decisions more quickly
38:26
Speaker 5: or kind of take charge when others are maybe over
38:29
Speaker 5: analyzing it, and so it's pretty cool. It also makes
38:33
Speaker 5: a lot of sense here in the eye of the Tigers.
38:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, my I just think like something we've talked about
38:39
Speaker 3: is like I'm a very blunt person, Like I'm just
38:41
Speaker 3: going to tell you how it is my face, like
38:42
Speaker 3: we were saying it says it all like whatever. I'm thinking,
38:44
Speaker 3: it's on my face. And I think we were talking
38:46
Speaker 3: about having like tacked in a conversation, and that's something
38:49
Speaker 3: like I've been like working on recently ever since I
38:52
Speaker 3: learned like that was something I didn't even know what
38:54
Speaker 3: that word meant before, like we talked about in there,
38:56
Speaker 3: and so like being truthful but having tact of like
38:59
Speaker 3: you know, if I'm talking to somebody who's more emotional,
39:02
Speaker 3: I maybe can't be as blunt and like kind of
39:04
Speaker 3: picking up on like what that other person needs from me,
39:07
Speaker 3: and like kind of being a chameleon to like who
39:09
Speaker 3: I'm talking to and what I can say to them
39:11
Speaker 3: to best like connect with them. And I think that
39:13
Speaker 3: that's helped a lot. And I've already been able to
39:16
Speaker 3: like put that into use on my team, which is great.
39:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was so cool. Since you're literally a software.
39:21
Speaker 1: I was just gonna ask, what's your biggest lesson you've
39:23
Speaker 1: learned from TLA that you think that can translate and
39:25
Speaker 1: you kind of just said.
39:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely that, Like I just think as a whole,
39:29
Speaker 3: especially girls, like we're very emotional as it is, and
39:32
Speaker 3: then like obviously dealing with failure and like you know,
39:35
Speaker 3: mental health and all that. So I think, you know,
39:38
Speaker 3: obviously coming up to somebody and telling them the truth,
39:40
Speaker 3: like to me, I would take that fine, like you're
39:42
Speaker 3: telling me to make me better. Yeah, But if somebody
39:44
Speaker 3: else is like more emotional or thinks through things a lot,
39:47
Speaker 3: I have to sit here and think, like, oh, what's
39:49
Speaker 3: the best way I can talk to Eve so that
39:51
Speaker 3: she will receive this the best way and not think
39:52
Speaker 3: I'm attacking her so I think that's something that we've
39:55
Speaker 3: like talked about in TLA that's really stuck with me.
39:57
Speaker 5: I love that, And that's part of building trust. It's
40:00
Speaker 5: just in Patent's work, and truth without tact is cruelty, right,
40:03
Speaker 5: But if you're working on building trust with somebody, you're
40:07
Speaker 5: delivering it with the way that they need it, just
40:08
Speaker 5: as you said, and then you're building that trust in
40:10
Speaker 5: that relationship and your leadership.
40:12
Speaker 4: Because leadership is so hard.
40:13
Speaker 3: It is hard.
40:14
Speaker 5: So being able to write that's even a hard piece
40:16
Speaker 5: of it is not only like Okay, I need to
40:18
Speaker 5: talk to my teammate, but I also need to figure
40:20
Speaker 5: out the way they need me to talk to them
40:22
Speaker 5: in a way that's going to be effective for both
40:24
Speaker 5: of us to move forward.
40:26
Speaker 4: That's good leadership, but it's hard to do, like.
40:29
Speaker 2: Definitely when you have like teammates that have a lot
40:32
Speaker 2: of different personalities too, Like you said, like you don't
40:34
Speaker 2: know how you should like approach one or like the other,
40:36
Speaker 2: and like some people are going to take things differently.
40:38
Speaker 2: So like having that like piece of mind and like
40:40
Speaker 2: awareness too is like super important of becoming a leader,
40:43
Speaker 2: and like crazy to think that you're literally only sophomore too,
40:46
Speaker 2: because I feel like I'm like.
40:47
Speaker 1: Still like I no, like coaches still are trying to
40:50
Speaker 1: figure that.
40:52
Speaker 3: Like she was saying in TLA, which is like this
40:54
Speaker 3: was like this stuck with me. It was like not
40:56
Speaker 3: everybody's walking around with like their letter on their head
40:58
Speaker 3: like I'm miss you know, so you have to like
41:00
Speaker 3: kind of like talk to them and you know, be
41:02
Speaker 3: personable and like know them as a person before you
41:05
Speaker 3: can address like the hard conversations. Because if you don't,
41:08
Speaker 3: you know, you just walk up to somebody and you
41:09
Speaker 3: don't have any background information about them or like what's
41:12
Speaker 3: going on in their life, maybe it's like the conversation
41:14
Speaker 3: is not going to go well. And I think that
41:16
Speaker 3: that was something that like really made sense on like
41:18
Speaker 3: a team as a whole too, Like you know, nobody's
41:20
Speaker 3: walking around like I'm a d I'm an I, so
41:23
Speaker 3: I like to be talk to you this way. Yeah,
41:24
Speaker 3: So like you know, that's like that's what the hard
41:26
Speaker 3: part is. Like you have to judge that yourself too.
41:29
Speaker 1: Everyone's not like everyone's different and everyone's navigating that too.
41:33
Speaker 1: I feel like even coaches like talk to some player
41:36
Speaker 1: like different than they would another player just because they
41:39
Speaker 1: know who they are as a person, and they know
41:40
Speaker 1: how they'll best be able to receive constructive criticism. So
41:44
Speaker 1: I think that's important that you're already learning that and yeah,
41:47
Speaker 1: like Mia said, you're a senior to me.
41:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, but also knowing you're not going to get
41:55
Speaker 5: it right every time, right, And I think that's where
41:57
Speaker 5: people they get it wrong, it feel prickly, and then
42:01
Speaker 5: they don't try again. And so having that mindset on
42:04
Speaker 5: failure or having the courage to keep trying and all right,
42:07
Speaker 5: that didn't land, let me try this again. Where if
42:09
Speaker 5: you try once it felt uncomfortable, then you never try again.
42:12
Speaker 5: Now we're not having the important conversations.
42:14
Speaker 1: We need to if you try and your fail, like
42:16
Speaker 1: having the courage to try try again, Yeah, and.
42:18
Speaker 3: Like apologize if you mess up and say something wrong
42:21
Speaker 3: or you know, you came across the wrong way, like
42:23
Speaker 3: you don't always have to be right. And I think
42:25
Speaker 3: that's also something that I've been working on. Like I
42:28
Speaker 3: just like I always like to think that what obviously
42:30
Speaker 3: everybody thinks, what they think is right, Yeah, but you
42:33
Speaker 3: don't think about what other people are like thinking, or
42:35
Speaker 3: their perspective or like their views and stuff.
42:37
Speaker 1: So yourself in their shoes.
42:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so I think like you, as a good
42:41
Speaker 3: leader would step back and say like, hey, I was
42:43
Speaker 3: wrong here. I apologize, but this was my goal in
42:46
Speaker 3: this conversation. So I think that's something we've been talking
42:48
Speaker 3: about a lot.
42:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, Okay, when you're not playing softball, traveling the world,
42:55
Speaker 5: what are you doing now?
42:56
Speaker 1: What's your major?
42:57
Speaker 3: My major is I'm pre business now, but I think
43:00
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go into marketing. My parents have a real
43:03
Speaker 3: estate company, so I think I want to go into that.
43:05
Speaker 3: But I've been with bridget lately, working with like Nile stuff,
43:08
Speaker 3: and I think I like that world a little bit.
43:11
Speaker 3: So I'm not sure if maybe like being some sort
43:14
Speaker 3: of like agent or something, or some of my teammates
43:18
Speaker 3: on my Puerto Rican team they play are they play
43:21
Speaker 3: professional like I said, but they also do like ESPN commentation,
43:24
Speaker 3: So I think that would be something fun that I'd
43:26
Speaker 3: like to do. I don't know, something in this past. Yeah, something, Yeah,
43:31
Speaker 3: I'm not sure. But I like to be outside, like
43:34
Speaker 3: to do like my hair, my nails. I'm very like
43:36
Speaker 3: girly with that stuff. I like to do, like water sports,
43:40
Speaker 3: like be on the lake. I live on the lake,
43:42
Speaker 3: so and the beach. I like to just be outside nice.
43:46
Speaker 1: That's cool.
43:47
Speaker 4: I love that.
43:48
Speaker 1: So when you leave Clemson, what do you want your
43:50
Speaker 1: legacy to be here? What do you want people to
43:53
Speaker 1: think of when they think of Macy Centron on Clemson
43:55
Speaker 1: Women's softball.
43:57
Speaker 3: Like I said, somebody who just competes and always wants
43:59
Speaker 3: to in and like we'll bring everybody along with her.
44:02
Speaker 3: But also somebody who's like compassionate and cares about people,
44:05
Speaker 3: like we can compete on the field, but off the field,
44:08
Speaker 3: like how can I help you? Type of things. So
44:10
Speaker 3: I just think somebody who's caring, compassionate too.
44:13
Speaker 4: I love that. We've heard confidence competitive Macy. That's so good.
44:22
Speaker 1: I love it. Macy, thank you so much for coming
44:24
Speaker 1: on Where can people find you on social media?
44:27
Speaker 3: On Instagram Macy dot centron and I think I have
44:30
Speaker 3: the same username for everything on all.
44:31
Speaker 1: My TikTok talk linked thank you okay on LinkedIn. Yeah,
44:36
Speaker 1: we love it.
44:39
Speaker 3: Thanks, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
44:41
Speaker 4: Of course, of course, thanks for coming