For senior Daphne Forman, her community is important to her, as it has played a critical role in her decision to play collegiate softball.
In particular, Forman said her parents have been her biggest supporters, and even though neither played softball or baseball growing up, they have played sports in their past.
“They’ve always supported me … they never forced me into it,” she said. “It was always my choice to keep playing, [and] they always supported my decisions no matter what.”
Now, they have helped her as she has makes the next step in pursuing her future.
After playing in recreational leagues since she was five years old, joining the Frost Elite softball club at the age of 10, and then continuing her journey to play in high school, Forman will begin her college softball career next season at the Division III level for Pacific University as a pitcher and first baseman.
In doing so, she joins The Falconer’s Next Level Seniors, a series which showcases students who are going to compete in athletics at the collegiate level.
She was first introduced to the sport by her uncles as they grew up playing baseball. She has memories from a young age of going to “little league baseball games and stuff to watch,” she said.
When she was younger, she said it was difficult to manage her time as the sport can be “very time consuming.”
“I always had softball during the summers, so I couldn’t hang out with my friends as much as I wanted to,” she said. “I’d either be gone or be practicing.”
Now, as she has gotten older, balancing her time has gotten easier, but it has not always been that simple.
Her current rigorous schedule consists of having two club practices weekly and hitting and pitching lessons twice a week, along with playing games and tournaments on the weekends.
During the high school season, she said the Falcons usually will play three games a week, and they practice essentially every day that isn’t filled with games.
This year, Forman took on the leadership role of being a team captain for the Falcons varsity softball team.
“We have a whole new coaching staff, so my coaches really wanted the captains to step up more and be leaders,” she said, which was “out of my comfort zone because I don’t want to be mean to people.”
As she has grown into her role, she understands that a captain doesn’t have to “be mean,” but instead “take charge.”
Although her title is not the same on her club team, the values she embodies carry over.
For her club team, there are no official team captains, but she said that everybody acts as a leader and also challenges each other to improve.
“It’s a pretty competitive team,” she said, “so everybody’s always competing with each other and pushing each other.”
This love for the sport pours over into her free time, where she can often be found giving private pitching lessons to girls 12 and under.
However, softball is not her only passion.
Forman also enjoys hobbies like shopping, cooking, hanging out with her friends, traveling, and baking.
As she prefers club season to the regular school season, Forman attributed traveling to be a compelling factor, as well as the time that it allows her to spend with her teammates.
“I’m definitely going to miss my club softball,” she said. “The team dynamic we have is very close.”
Her favorite place that she’s traveled to is San Diego, California, which she visited last year. “It was really fun,” she said, as the team had the opportunity to spend a free day at the beach.
Her favorite memory was from another California tournament in her junior year when she traveled during spring break and her tournament only played two days due to the rain. Her team spent the rest of the day at Disneyland Park. “It was very fun,” she said.
She said that she considers her biggest accomplishment in her career being recruited for college softball. This process has been long, and as Forman described, “stressful,” because she began recruiting around the age of 15 or 16 years old.
To gain connections, she had to email college coaches her club tournament schedule, inviting them to watch her play.
“It’s really nerve wracking when you’re playing and you see college coaches watching you because you don’t want to mess up,” she said.
She added that a particularly helpful tool was the app called FieldLevel, where athletes can input video clips of them playing.
“My club has connections to a lot of colleges too, and so we got opportunities to have college coaches come watch us at just our practices,” she said. This is how she first met the Pacific University coach when she was 16 years old.
After practices, members of the club have the opportunity to introduce themselves and ask questions with the potential of being invited to visit a prospective college.
While making her decision, she also considered Bushnell College, but ultimately decided to commit to Pacific University because of the smaller size with around a total enrollment of around 3,479 students, and she said that she was less drawn to the “urban” feeling of the Bushnell campus.
She described the smaller community and brick buildings at Pacific University as cultivating a “very home[y] feeling,” she said. Forman appreciated the community when she visited, and reconnected with some old teammates that attend the school, noting that the welcoming coaching staff is also a plus to the school.
“It’s just like a very Oregon-looking campus,” she said.
While at Pacific University, she plans to major in business, following in the footsteps of her grandparents. Her dream career is to start her own business or take over the family business, a construction company owned by her grandparents.
She also plans to study abroad while in college. Forman wants to visit Italy or France, after her interest was originally sparked when she visited France with the La Salle French class last summer.
Although she’s wanted to play from a young age because she said college softball was “always fun to watch,” Forman is uncertain if she wants to pursue softball further since she isn’t sure about the stability it provides at the professional level.
The biggest setbacks that she has encountered are called “slumps,” she said. She defined them as times that she has struggled to hit the ball or pitch to her standards. But, with the mentality to just “keep trying,” she has overcome those difficult times.
Another important lesson that Forman has learned is how to deal with coaching and criticism.
Over the years she has learned to respond to coaching and criticism even when it is difficult or harsh. Her strategy is to “take the criticism into account,” she said, but don’t let it “get in your head or let it affect your mentality.”
This resilience, she said, has helped her stay motivated throughout her career.
Another difficult aspect of her game is her position. As a pitcher, she said that the other team will heckle and holler to try to distract the pitcher’s concentration. This is how she developed the ability that she considers one of her strengths: tuning them out.
Forman still struggles with moving on from “hard plays,” she said, but “I’ve gotten better at it” because she believes that she must move on to avoid letting it affect the rest of her playing.
To stay focused, Forman will perform the same ritual before every game: she will always listen to the same pre-game playlist and she will warm up the same way every time. “For hitting or for pitching, I do the same warm up every time,” she said.
During a game, she will use another strategy to maintain mindfulness.
“If I’m distracted or trying to stay more focused I’ll sing a song in my head, just to clear my mind,” she said. “I think it helps me relax.” One song she said that comes to mind is “Lucky” by Megan Maroney.
Forman is looking forward to the future ahead of her and she said she has a team rooting her on.
She said that her parents, club coaches, and whole family supported her through her decision to continue playing.
“I think they were all really proud that I decided I wanted to play college softball,” she said. “They’re all excited because they’re going to see me play more.”
In college, she is most excited to meet new people, bond with her new teammates, and decorate her dorm room. She finds some comfort in the fact that she knows three of the players on the softball team, though they are not close yet.
She is excited to go to college, but also a little nervous because “everything’s going to be on you,” she said. “I’ll have to be a lot more responsible,” she said regarding her increased independence.
