The student athlete started playing softball in the third grade and ever since then, she has loved the game and created many memories and great friends. When Garcia started playing her father, Theodore Garcia, has been her personal coach and pushed her to be the best player she could be.

Although she has had many other coaches, her father is the one she has learned the most from. He taught her the basics of the game and supported her through her years of playing.

Garcia started playing softball in the third grade and all throughout junior high, during her high school career, she started out playing at Clovis North where she was the junior varsity captain. After her freshman year, she had transferred to FC where she made the varsity team and was captain for her junior and senior year.

As far as playing on club teams, Garcia started playing when she was in the sixth grade. She started out playing on the Clovis Bullets where she found out that playing the game was much more fast played.

“I was very surprised on how different not only the environment was, but also how different the pace of the game was from playing school ball,” Garcia said. “It was a lot faster, and the girls were visibly more experienced, but they also shared the same passion I did, and had a strong love for the game.”

Softball is a team sport, and when you are surrounded by people who share the same love and passion as you do, you immediately become that much better of a softball team. I still keep in touch with those girls, and I have memories with them that will be with me forever. –Senior Ashley Garcia

After playing a few years on the Clovis Bullets Garcia had moved to the Clovis Rockets and played for the next four years. The athlete then noticed that softball was a huge part of her life and who she was. Garcia says that those four years were the best years of her life.

“My Rockets coach, Matt Meehan, had a tremendous impact on my career as a softball player,” Garcia said. “He was the one who taught me most of what I know, and was always there for me as a friend at the same time. I looked up to him as a person with integrity, and he succeeded in making those four years of my life something to remember.”

In playing a sport for so many years, you develop a lot of skill and meet a lot of people. Garcia states that she has met many of her closets friends and has not only met so many people and made relationships but made a connection as a family.

“Softball is a team sport, and when you are surrounded by people who share the same love and passion as you do, you immediately become that much better of a softball team,” Garcia said. “I still keep in touch with those girls, and I have memories with them that will be with me forever.”
Throughout the years of playing at FC, the player has learned patients, determination, hard work and leadership. Coming from so much experience and skill to a Division VI school requires all of those qualities.

“One thing that I am most thankful for is the fact that God has never ceased to be the main reason why our team plays,” Garcia said. “It is in His honor and in His name that we play, and I am so lucky to share that with my teammates. It just makes the game of softball that much more enjoyable.”

Coming to play at FC on the varsity team has created many memories for Garcia and the one she remembers the most is when the team beat the former league champions, Caruthers. During the game, Garcia ran into Breanna Jennings, ’15, while catching a fly ball.

“Ashley Garcia shines on field because she helps all of us be better,” Jennings said.

When the player was asked about anything she would change about playing the game she said it would be making the decision to play collegiate softball a lot sooner. She would want to start playing at that level earlier because recruiters look at sophomores and juniors to start training.

Garcia has decided to try to walk onto the Monterey Bay University team as a freshman but it will take a lot of determination and the player has faith that things will work out the way God has planned them to.

As the varsity softball team captain, Garcia would like to give her team and upcoming softball players some advice on the game and getting through tough situations as a team.

“Have fun and make the most of it, use softball as an outlet from everyday life, and enjoy every moment you have on the field because these years of playing will hold some of the best memories throughout life,” Garcia said. “Rely on each other to build up your self confidence, and know that we are a family, and we always have each other to lean on for support, as well as God’s love and faith for us.”

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For more features, read the March 6 article, Former campus teacher reflects on time spent at FC.