We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to our extended Ohana in Hawaii on the passing of Sylvia Carey, grandmother to #1, Kolo Carey. Please know that your Ohana in Illinois' thoughts and prayers are with you.

Updated Photos

Check out our updated photos to see action shots from the fall season!

Laker Privileges

As a coach I often hear about the privileges athletes receive. I’m the first to agree that our softball players here at Lake Land College are entitled to certain privileges, which we constantly remind them to take advantage of. Below is a list of just some of those privileges our Lake Land softball players receive. They get the privilege to attend class every day on time. They get the privilege to sit in the front row, ask one intelligent question, and participate in class discussion each day. They get the privilege to turn their homework in complete and on time. They get the privilege to know on a close basis a nationally recognized faculty and administration. They get the privilege to get help from great tutors when needed. They get the privilege of attending softball study table 3 hours per night Monday through Thursday. They get the privilege of 1 to 2 hours of bus and 2 hours of hotel study tables for away and overnight softball games. They get the privilege to attend 2 to 3 hours of daily softball practice 6 days a week. They get the privilege of a 1 hour daily work out 6 days a week in the Lake Land College fitness center. They get the privilege to be held at a higher social and moral standard than the rest of the student body. They get the privilege to be a member of a nationally competitive softball team who for the third straight year in a row received the recognition as a NJCAA All American team. These are just some of the privileges that our Lake Land College Softball Athletes receive when they put on the Lakers uniform. So when people talk to me about the privileged athlete, I say “you bet”. Our softball players are proud of their school and the honor and privilege to serve at the pleasure of the students, faculty, staff, administration and board of trustees of Lake Land College. Always play to win, Coach Nelson

Featured Player - Aubrey Frank #42

2009 NFCA All-American

PERSONAL INFO:

Born: February 24th, 1990 Mattoon, IL on

Started playing softball: Around 8 years old

High school: Mattoon High School

Desired major: Business Administration

Siblings: One older brother – Austin (23 years old)

PERSONALITY:

Dream job: Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

Personality off the field: Caring

Personality on the field: Focused

Who do you admire? • As an athlete? Albert Pujols • As a softball player? Jennie Finch • As a person? My mother Who are the people that have helped you? • In fastpitch? All of my past coaches and family

What is the best advice you have ever been given? • In fastpitch? Play with your heart and for the love of the game

What advice would you give to a young player just getting started in the sport? There is no glory in practice but without practice there is no glory – (practice only makes you better)

Are you superstitious? I am very superstitious. I have certain items I have to wear on game day and have a set routine I have to do before every game I pitch.

If you were a shoe, what kind would you be? A high heel because women who wear high heels show confidence in themselves and not everyone is daring enough to wear a high heel. It also shows sophistication.

Pets: two shitzu dogs, Scooter and Dallas. Dream car: A black Challenger

Hobbies: Scrapbooking and playing tennis and shopping Passion: family

FASTPITCH: What are you looking forward to the most during your 2010 season with Lake Land? Playing Wabash Valley and accomplishing our team goals

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment to date? Moving on to play college ball and becoming an All American.

TRAINING: What exercise gives you the best results in achieving your fitness goals? Any ab exercise

What do you like to do on a day-off? Lift weights to make me stronger

FAVORITES: Food: Mashed Potatoes Vegetable: Corn Fruit: Strawberries Restaurant: Olive Garden Superhero: Superwoman Luxury item: tooth brush Vacation spot: Florida Athlete: Albert Pujols

A Note From Coach Nelson

Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend the Granada Gala, a huge fundraising event put on by Granada Land and Cattle Company in Houston, Texas. Hosting the event was the old TV comedian Red Skelton. He told a story that night that made a huge impact on my life. On one of his many flights, Red started a conversation with the gentleman sitting next to him on the plane. He asked the gentleman what he did for a living. The gentleman replied that he had just retired from a successful business. The two visited for a while then Red asked what the man was planning to do in his retirement. The man said that he was finally going to enjoy life. Red looked at the man and told him how sorry he was for him. "Sorry," the man said, "for what?" Because he did not enjoy the first sixty years of his life. From that point on I look at my life and the work I do in a totally different light. It is an insight that I keep in mind every day as I work with the Lake Land College Softball team.

Being a two-year college we turn over half our team every year, which makes for interesting and exciting new experiences, unique to each team. As we start off the 2009-2010 softball season, I will be watching our softball players deal with the stresses of studying through the wee hours of the night, performing all the daily activities that mom and dad used to do (laundry, grocery shopping, housekeeping, getting themselves up and out of bed every morning etc.), keeping up with their responsibility to the softball team, and suffering through occasional home sickness. We see the players start their college experience with their eyes wide open and their heads spinning. As coaches, at some point we find ourselves as teacher, priest, parent, and friend. But as time goes by we see our players becoming more adapted to their new surroundings, new friends and most importantly, conquering the most difficult task of time management. We coaches get to see these players earn a high quality education, meet new life long friends and gain those experiences needed to develop and grow into successful, hard working young adults. Watching our young athlete’s progress as they go through the first years of college is exhilarating to say the least.

Sure, there are some aspects of coaching that are less exciting, like helping players through injuries and sicknesses, sitting through three hours of study table each night, long bus rides to Florida, Arkansas and Alabama, and the continuous quest to obtain additional funding necessary to run a top collegiate softball program we are so proud of here at Lake Land. Yes, there are rumors that Coach Birk and I are known to still be at the office at 1:00 a.m or sometimes get into the office as earlier as 4:30 a.m. to start our day. Can you imagine having a job so satisfying and enjoyable that you cannot wait to go to bed so you can get up for work the next day? We do. I can truly say, without question that coaches have one of the greatest jobs in the world and yes, we are truly enjoying the first sixty years of our lives.

Always play to win,

Coach Nelson

Help Support Laker Softball!

Would you like to have your very own Lake Land Softball t-shirt or hat? Support Laker Softball by helping us raise funds for our 2010 season and receive a free hat or t-shirt! Interested? Then join one of the following clubs:

FOUNDER’S CLUB: $50– Receive a Lake Land Softball T-shirt

HOME RUN CLUB: $100– Receive 2 Lake Land Softball T-shirts

GRAND SLAM CLUB: $150 Receive 2 Lake Land Softball T- shirts and a hat.

BIG HITTERS CLUB: $250 + Receive 2 Lake Land Softball T- Shirts with 2 hats.

100% of your club membership goes to support the Lake Land Softball team.

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO “LAKE LAND SOFTBALL”

AND MAIL TO:

LAKE LAND COLLEGE

FIELD HOUSE

ATTN: LAKE LAND SOFTBALL

5001 LAKE LAND BLVD.

MATTOON, IL 61938

If you would like to support your 2010 Lakers, print the pdf below!

Featured Player - Mallory Bremer #00

2009 NJCAA Region 24 Freshman of the Year

PERSONAL INFO:

Born: 7/2/90

Age started playing softball: 4

Highschool: 2 ½ years at Carbondale and 1 ½ years at Pinckneyville

Desired major in college: Special education/ photo journalism

Siblings: 1 brother

PERSONALITY:

Dream job: Traveling the world taking pictures

One word describes your personality off the field? Outgoing

One word describes your personality on the field? Confident

Who do you admire? • As an athlete? Rick Ankiel • As a softball player? Amy Harre • As a person? My mother Who are the people that have helped you? • In Life? My mother, Friends • In fastpitch? Denny Throneburg

What is the best advice you have ever been given? • In Life? Life is hard but if it wasn’t we wouldn’t learn anything • In fastpitch? Play Hard and good things will happen

What advice would you give to a young player just getting started in the sport? Play hard and work to your best ability! If you were a shoe, what kind would you be? Flip Flops

What is the scariest thing you have ever done? Been lights out in a cave!

What is your favorite color? Orange Pets? 2 cats- Sam and Sassy and a yellow lab named Auggie

What is your dream car? A VW bus or a 4runner

What are your hobbies? Softball, singing, writing, photography

What are you passionate about? Helping others

FASTPITCH:

What are you looking forward to the most during your 2010 season with Lake Land? Having a good year and pitching my best

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment to date? Being freshman of the 08-09’ softball year at lakeland

TRAINING:

What is your favorite exercise? Pikes aka abs

Is there an exercise you don't like doing or have to force yourself to complete? Running!

What do you like to do on a day-off? Relax, be a “normal” student

FAVORITES:

Food: Green bean casserole or bread

Vegetable: Green beans

Fruit: strawberries

Candy: skittles

TV Show: That 70’s show

MLB team: Cardinals

Tell us something that most people might not know about you? I speak german!

Sunday Night Supper

Every week we try to meet as a team on Sunday for dinner, or supper as Coach Nelson says. It's an opportunity for all of us to spend some quality family time together outside of the softball field, literally. We usually set up tables next to the field and make our dinner together. Before we eat we say our family greeting, "You are ohana" to the person sitting next to us. Ohana is a term that means family, which we inherited from our Hawaii native, Kolo. Our most recent Sunday night supper was at Coach Nelson's mom's house, better known as Big Al. We roasted weenies and smores, it was excellent! The girls even provided some entertainment, taking turns singing and doing impressions of each other. It was rather amusing.

Illinois & Arkansas Trips

For the past week, the Lakers have continued working hard studying, practicing and playing our intense fall scrimmage schedule. Last Friday we traveled to Urbana, IL to play the Universtiy of Illinois. After playing a complete seven innings, we headed back to Mattoon on our Bales charter bus.

Just hours later, we were back on the bus and headed to Fayeteville, AR for a double header vs. the University of Arkansas. As we arrived on campus everyone’s heads were turning in all directions as we admired the beautiful athletic facilities. The players were escorted into their very own locker room to get changed and ready for the games. It wasn’t long before they lined up and marched together into Bogle Park. Jaws dropped as they entered and got a view of the entire stadium. Witnessing the tradition at Arkansas was a site to see and would make any athlete want to be a part of it. Our pitchers were tough on the mound and we played two close scrimmages. After the scrimmage games, several of the parents took us all to dinner at Loafin’ Joes. The entrees were hotsandwiches and pizza, and I think it’s safe to say everyone was satisfied! The food was excellent and it was a nice atmosphere for the team and their families to mingle. We’d like to make a special thank you to Abbie Frank for organizing the dinner. We would also like to thank all of the parents for the delicious donated dinner! We really appreciate it
.

On Wednesday, the Lakers traveled to Normal, IL for a scrimmage game against Illinois State University. This weekend we’ll be traveling across town to take on Eastern Illinois University in a double header.

Featured Player - Richael Tavis Kolo Carey

THE BASICS

Born: Jan 12, 1991 in Honolulu, Hawaii

Started playing softball at age: 7

High School: McKinley High School

Desired major in college: Physical Education

Siblings: Hoku, Kawe, Hauoli, Ikaika, Rickey, Raymond

Nicknames: Kolo, Kolone, lil’ 1

PERSONALITY

Dream job: To coach a great softball team

Personality off the field? Kolohe (rascal)

Personality on the field? loud

Who do you admire as a softball player? My high school coach, Summer Nagareda

Who do you admire as a person? My mom

Who are the people that have helped you in life? Dad, Mom

•In fastpitch? Leilani, Okuda, Summer Nagareda, Mitch Matsumoto, Coach Bola, Mellisa Marquez, Michelle Puesta

What is the best advice you have ever been given? Be humble and greatful

If you were a shoe, what kind would you be? Nikes

What is one thing you have done you would never want to do again? Go on the zipper ride

What is the scariest thing you have ever done? Coming to Illinois

What is the one thing you absolutely must do in order to get your day started right?

EAT and turn on music

Do you have any pets? Dog, her name is Kiko

FASTPITCH

What are you looking forward to the most during your 2010 season with Lake Land?

To learn as much as I can and to be able to continue to a 4 year college

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment to date?

Going to college and playing the one thing I LOVE

What is your favorite position to play? Anywhere in the outfield

At what age did you start playing fastpitch? 8/9 years old

Did you ever play baseball? If so, for how long?

Yes, since I was 6 til Freshman year in high school

TRAINING

What is your favorite exercise? Upper body workouts

Exercise that gives you the best results: Burpies and fried frog legs

Exercise you don’t like doing or have to force yourself to complete: Hawaiian BURPIES!!!

What do you like to do on a day-off? Sleep and shopping

FAVORITES

Food: Kalua pig with rice, poi, haupie Fruit: Oranges Candy: Li hing sour watermelon

Healthy snack: PBJ sandwich Restaurant: CPK Music: local island/reggae

Laker Practice Area

With the help of private dontaions, Coach Nelson has worked hard to build an amazing practice area for the team. We have a batting cage, a hitting net, and a one of a kind bullpen. The bullpen still is not complete, but it’s getting there! Just theother day, the girls and Coach Nelson worked together to put up part of the roof. When it’s finished, the pitchers will be able to throw in dirt all year round! What an amazing addition to our program.

Softball Time!

The Lakers have been working really hard these past few weeks to prepare for our fall scrimmage games. Anyone on campus can hear the excitement during practice as they are cheering loudly for each other. Every day they’re getting better and learning to play as a team. We’ve got some great competition ahead, and as the girls often say, it’s “softball time!”

LLC fight song:

Make way for the Lakers now

Our champions we do cheer

We’ve played the game,

We’ve earned the name

Our foes we do not fear

So, raise up your voice in praise

Let’s shout for victory

The Lakers are the best

Forget all the rest

To Lake Land our loyalty

LAKERS!

Tune in after every WIN to hear the Lakers sing the fight song! You may join them by clapping along and singing!

LLC vs. Robert Morris College - 9.9.09

In game one, Aubrey Frank started on the mound, giving up just two hits and one run. After the first inning, Frank was untouchable, retiring the next 15 hitters, with 4 strike outs. Geri Whitman got the ball to finish up the last three ininngs. Whitman gave up 1 hit, 2 walks and 0 runs while striking out 4.

Offensively, the bats were hot. In the first inning, the Lakers took the lead scoring 3 runs with a walk by Kolo Carey, a double by Bri Athey and a triple by Danielle Finke. In the third inning, Katie Reiff, Finke and Tori Purcell singled to put 3 more runs on the board. Frank reached on a fielder’s choice and Kaitlyn Teager walked. In the 6th inning, Athey scored the final run being hit by a pitch to reach first base. The Lakers had 7 stolen bases by: Carey (2), K. Runde (2), Reiff, N. Runde and Athey.

In game two, Mallory Bremer started on the mound giving up just two runs on 1 walk and 2 hits. Offensively, the Lakers did not score until the fourth inning. Carey led off the 4th inning with a triple, followed with a single by Nicki Ramsay and a sac fly by Jackie Trombi to score Nicole Runde. Two more runs were scored in both the 5th and 6th inning on a walk by Winkler, a triple by K. Runde, a sac by Carey, and Ramsay and Athey reached on errors. Murray came in in the 5th inning giving up just 1 hit and retiring the rest.

The Lakers will take on the University of Illinois this Friday with a game at 6pm in Urbana, IL. On Saturday we’ll be traveling to Fayetville, AR for a double header against the University of Arkansas.

Flying V

Here is the inspiration of our flying v:

In the fall when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in the “v” formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way.
It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. Quite similar to people who are part of a team and share a common direction get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the trust of one another and lift each other up along the way.Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go through it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the power of the flock. If we have as much sense as a Goose, we will stay in formation and share information with those who are headed the same way that we are going.
When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wind and another goose takes over. It pays to share leadership and take turns doing hard jobs.
The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep their speed. Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line, helping them to keep pace in spite of the day-to-day pressures and fatigue. It is important that our honking be encouraging. Otherwise it’s just – well honking!
Finally, when a goose gets sick or is wounded by a gunshot and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow the injured one down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and then they launch out with another formation to catch up with their group. When one of us is down, it’s up to the others to stand by us in our time of trouble. If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other when things get rough. We will stay in formation with those headed where we want to go.
The next time you see a formation of geese, remember the message that “it is indeed a reward, a challenge, and a privilege to be a contributing member of a team.” - Angelels Arrien