8 — Friday, March 30, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Like grandmother, Allan hopes to achieve Olympic dream
In
observance
of
Women’s
History Month, The Daily launches
a series aimed at telling the stories of
female athletes, coaches and teams at
the University from the perspective
of the female sports writers on staff.
Daily sports writer Aria Gerson
continues the series with this story.
Lou Allan still gets chills
thinking about it.
She stood on the podium — gold
medal around her neck — watching
as the flag went up and listening as
the Star-Spangled Banner played.
Young girls sat in the stands
wearing USA T-shirts, starstruck,
already wishing that they could
stand up there one day. And among
the audience was one person
who had been there, who knew
the indescribable feeling, whose
footsteps Allan had followed: her
grandma, Sheila Cornell-Douty.
Even now, it’s a moment Allan
will never forget.
***
Growing up in the 1970s, Cornell-
Douty didn’t have a lot of female
role models to look up to. Most
women athletes didn’t get much
attention back then, and her sport
— softball — got even less. Instead,
she idolized Los Angeles Dodgers
first baseman Steve Garvey.
Watching the Olympics was a
family affair. Her mom had played
several sports growing up, and
her grandma had been involved
with the Girls’ Athletic Club.
From the time Cornell-Douty
was in elementary school, the
three would gather and watch the
Olympics together. Cornell-Douty
was enthralled, and she knew she
wanted to compete there someday.
But at that time, the idea of
competing in the Olympics was just
as unrealistic as that of donning
Dodger blue and patrolling first
base. Softball, after all, wasn’t an
Olympic sport, and softball was
what she loved.
But then that all changed. The
International Olympic Committee
announced that softball would
become an Olympic sport, effective
in 1996. Cornell-Douty would be 36
then, at the twilight of her career.
She knew this was her shot, and she
knew she had to go for it.
She quit her job as a physical
therapist
and
developed
her
own training regimen. She went
to
camps,
tournaments
and
showcases. She was constantly
under
a
microscope.
Despite
competing against much younger
athletes, she made the team. It had
all been worth it.
“(The Olympics were) something
unlike anything else,” Cornell-
Douty said. “ … We opened against
Puerto Rico and I remember we
were lined up on the sidelines and
they were announcing the teams
and I was getting tears in my eyes
since I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this
is really it. This is for real. I’m
really in the Olympics. We’re really
playing.’ ”
And the most surreal moment
of all was standing on the podium,
gold medal around her neck,
as Team USA was honored for
winning the first-ever Olympic
softball tournament.
***
Allan started t-ball at age five.
It was only natural, given the
pedigree of her grandma — who
went on to win another gold medal
in 2000 and was inducted into the
National Softball Hall of Fame and
the International Softball Hall
of Fame. Though many families
pushed their kids into the sports
they had played, Cornell-Douty
didn’t want her granddaughter
to be pressured by the weight of a
legacy. The first thing on Cornell-
Douty’s agenda was just to let Allan
play.
“I felt it was extremely important
from a very young age, number
one was that she came to me and
wanted to practice and work out
and do all of that stuff,” Cornell-
Douty said. “ … This is t-ball, she’s
out there to just go play and enjoy
the game and have fun and learn
some stuff, but you know, she’s five
years old.”
When Cornell-Douty attended
Allan’s first game, she walked in
late to find her granddaughter
already on base. But not for long.
“She comes running off the base
and she came running to us like, ‘Hi
grandma! Thanks for coming to my
game!’ ” Cornell-Douty said. “And
then she ran back.”
That’s
when
Cornell-Douty
knew she was doing something
right.
When Allan was around 10, she
decided she wanted to follow in
her grandma’s footsteps and play
softball at a high level. She had
seen Cornell-Douty’s medals and
began to dream of earning some
of her own. So Cornell-Douty and
her husband built a batting cage
and fielding area, and the former
softball star began training the
future one.
Like her grandma, Allan became
one of the top players in the country.
Like her grandma, she played first
base and earned a scholarship to a
top program — UCLA for Cornell-
Douty and Michigan for Allan. Like
her grandma, she had her sights set
on one thing: the Olympics.
But Allan’s Olympic dreams
weren’t
always
a
foregone
conclusion. In 2006, the IOC voted
to leave softball off the schedule
for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Cornell-Douty, along with other
former Olympic softball players,
wrote letters and lobbied endlessly
to reinstate the sport they loved.
And in 2016, the decision was
official: for 2020, Olympic softball
was back on.
Still, though, the future of
Olympic softball is uncertain. The
IOC hasn’t made a decision yet on
the 2024 Olympics, and it’s possible
that 2020 could be Allan’s only shot.
“I was super excited that it
got put in,” Allan said. “ … 2020 is
obviously the (next) one so that is
my goal to get to it in the first part.
(But) there’s so many different
people that are older than me that
have so much more experience
that are coming back, I don’t know
necessarily if I’m gonna make the
team or not.”
Whatever
happens,
Allan
already has a taste of the Team USA
experience. In 2017 — the summer
before she began her freshman year
at Michigan — she was chosen for
the USA Junior National Team. The
United States went 9-0 to take the
gold medal at the Junior Women’s
Softball World Championship in
Clearwater, Fla.
There are plenty of parallels
between Allan’s experience and her
grandmother’s. After all, both had
the defining experience of standing
on a podium, wearing gold medals
as their flag was raised.
“You can’t beat that,” Allan said.
“I mean, you see your flag and you
see everything going on around
you and all these people and all
these little girls that are like, ‘Oh
my gosh, USA!’ and hearing the
USA chant and all that stuff is so
incredible that you can’t describe it.
… You’re representing something so
much bigger than yourself and that
is incredible.”
But their shared understanding
goes beyond just the thrill of a
championship. In a sport where
professional leagues don’t get much
attention, college and national
team players are the famous ones
that every young girl aspires to be.
“There’s always that intensity
and it’s just a good thing for little
girls to watch and look up to,” Allan
said. “The more women’s sports we
have in the Olympics is great for
these little girls to look up to and
show that they have something to
look forward to.”
Cornell-Douty
remembers
touring in the months leading up
to the Olympics, traveling to big
cities and towns so small they
were barely on the map. There, the
team would attend games, and at
each one, a steady stream of fans
came out, waiting for autographs.
Sometimes, they were there until
one or two in the morning.
Allan, too, visits with fans
waiting outside the locker room.
She loves the feeling of knowing
that they admire her. It gives her
something to play for.
Cornell-Douty takes her job as
a role model seriously because she
grew up at a time when women
in sports existed mostly in the
shadows. She wants the next
generation of athletes — Allan’s
generation — to grow up knowing
that their possibilities are endless.
Allan does it with a different
perspective: she remembers being
one of those girls, idolizing her
grandma and former Michigan
second baseman Sierra Romero.
Now that she’s reached some of the
highest heights imaginable for a
player her age, she wants to give a
similar experience to others.
“If I can sit out there and see all
these different girls waiting for me,
then I’m doing something right,”
Allan said. “I’m giving them hope
that they have something to look
forward to and that’s all I want in
the world is to make a difference.”
But for Allan, softball isn’t an
endpoint. She has bigger plans for
the future. She wants to go to law
school, have a career in public
policy and become an advocate.
Maybe it’s not all that different
from softball, anyway. After all,
she and her grandma are proof that
for women, the sky is the limit. She
knows the transformative power of
a role model. And she knows what
it’s like to be part of something
bigger than herself.
“Softball’s … taught me (the
skills),” Allan said. “But once I
leave the sport, there’s something
more beyond, there’s a next
chapter in my life that I have to
open up.”
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Freshman Lou Allan has dreams of playing in the Olympics, like her grandmother did.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
Newfound confidence sparks Wolverines to win streak
On March 14, the Michigan
baseball team lost to the NAIA’s
Lawrence Tech. Or, as coach Eric
Bakich describes it, they didn’t
just lose, they were “totally
outplayed.” The loss dropped the
Wolverines to 4-11, two losses
and 38 wins short of their 2017
totals.
Fourteen days later, the loss
total remains mired at 11 —
and zero in Big Ten play — as
Michigan is riding a nine-game
win streak.
“At 4-10, everything is an
area for improvement,” Bakich
said after the previous loss, to
Lipscomb in Nashville.
At the time, this may have been
interpreted as the Wolverines
needing to improve offensively,
defensively and on the mound.
The biggest change, though, did
not come from any of those areas.
Instead,
after
the
loss
to
Lawrence
Tech,
Bakich
pinpointed a different problem.
“We got to utilize these
cameras and see everything,”
Bakich said, motioning to the
various
cameras
postioned
around Ray Fisher Stadium.
“We got to see the dugout, see
the behind home plate view, see
everything.”
It was that ability to see its
dugout that reversed Michigan’s
fortunes. Bakich realized the
team’s demeanor was not one of
a winning program. So he held
a two-part film session: half to
show his players their dejected
body language in the dugout, the
other half a compilation of the
program’s storied legacy.
“That loss to Lawrence Tech
kind of opened everyone’s eyes,”
said freshman outfielder Jordan
Nwogu. “In practice (the day
after the game), we noticed that
we were down as a team and
were not getting behind each
other. Friday (against Bowling
Green), we turned that right
around and everyone had each
other’s backs.”
Added Bakich: “It wasn’t until
we played Lawrence Tech … that
the lightbulb really went off.”
The
obvious
blessing
in
disguise for the Wolverines came
in that loss to the Blue Devils. A
similar victory in defeat, though,
came in their loss to San Diego
State two weeks earlier. Bakich
was
ejected
with
Michigan
holding a lead in a marquee
win opportunity, one it would
ultimately lose by one run.
“I had to watch the game
from
outside
the
stadium,”
Bakich said. “And I could see
(the dugout) from outside the
bubble.”
It was then that he first
realized his team had an energy
problem.
“Something was missing early
on,” Bakich said. “And it wasn’t
just that we were playing good
opponents. It just didn’t feel
right, it didn’t sound right, there
wasn’t a whole lot of energy.”
The key for the Wolverines
turned out to be a simple one:
having fun playing baseball.
“It’s okay to have childlike
enthusiasm
and
energy
out
here,” Bakich said. “This is
supposed to be a playground. We
use that phrase a lot that this is
a playground, but we weren’t
playing like we were having a
whole lot of fun. It looked more
like a chore.”
Bakich’s claims are evident on
the field. Against Lipscomb and
Lawrence Tech, many Michigan
players sat on the bench in the
bottom of the dugout while their
foes across the field filled the
stadium with the unmistakable
chirps of a baseball dugout.
Now, the roles are reversed.
Every Wolverines run — and
there are a lot of them — is met
with the entire team spilling out
of the dugout. Players climb over
each other for perches on the top
step to cheer on their pitchers on
the rare occasions that they find
themselves in a jam.
“It’s really easy to get down,”
said freshman first baseman
Jesse
Franklin.
“But
when
you look in the
dugout and you
see
everyone’s
smiling faces and
everyone joking
around, it gives
you confidence.”
While
most
of
Michigan’s
wins
in
this
streak have been
blowouts,
they
have twice found
themselves
in
6-0 holes.
“6-0 down, (our attitude was),
‘who cares?’ ” Nwogu said. “We
need to get these runs and help
our pitchers out. It was just a
light flicker that went off (after
Lawrence Tech).”
Much of the credit for the
turnaround will rightfully be
attributed to Bakich, but it is
his players — from freshmen to
seniors — who have blossomed
into vocal leaders after losing
11 players to the draft in the
offseason.
“(The
upperclassmen)
have done a great
job of showing
leadership,”
Bakich
said,
“and taking the
younger
guys
under
their
wings.”
Added Nwogu:
“In the dugout,
right before (an)
at-bat (against Bowling Green,
freshman
right-hander
Jeff
Criswell) told me, ‘Just swing as
hard as you can and you’ll hit it
out.’ ”
Two minutes later, a baseball
was nestled in a grass lot beyond
the left field fence, and Nwogu
was being mobbed by teammates
at home plate.
That leadership extends to
the team’s role players. The first
name both Bakich and Franklin
named when asked about their
clubhouse leaders was redshirt
sophomore
left-hander
Ben
Keizer — who has pitched all of
four innings this season.
“It may not always be one
guy who’s giving the speech,”
Bakich said, “but a lot of guys
who are just speaking up more
consistently, and that’s helped
everybody.
“They were sick of losing. At
some point, enough is enough.
And at 4-11, that was enough.”
Just two weeks later, the
Wolverines find themselves in
an enviable position. One quick
glance at the dugout would tell
you that.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan baseball team has now won nine games in a row after a 4-11 start to the season.
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer
“They were sick
of losing. At some
point, enough is
enough.”