Adriana Sanchez
Social Media Director
Courtney Votto, senior and member of the softball team has been playing this sport for 15 years. Her father has been her mentor and coach through it all.
When Votto was in middle school, that’s when she knew she wanted to take softball to another level. “A lot of my friends I played with my whole life were going to college and playing, and seeing my sister come here and play really helped,” Votto said.
Votto choose to be an Owl because of her sister , Kayla Votto. “I knew a lot of people here, I knew the program and it was more comfortable for me,” she said.
Votto said the hardest thing about playing softball is the mentality you need for it.
“It’s more of a mental game than anything, people can get in your head very easily, and I think, yes, you need the skill and the talent, but you need to have a good mindset for it. You have to always push through and be positive when you mess up,” said Votto.
She said getting older and maturing has helped her with this.
Being a student athlete hasn’t been that hard for her, she said.
“I usually schedule my classes during the morning so I don’t have to miss them for practice,” Votto said.
Votto ended her sophomore year red-shirting because of a hip labral tear. Red-shirting is when an athlete is out of college competition for a year in order to develop the athlete’s skills or due to an injury.
A tear like this involves the ring of cartilage that traces the outside rim of the socket of the hip joint. She said she had been experiencing pain for a while but didn’t think anything of it. But the pain only got worse, so she went to see a doctor. When she went to the doctor’s, she found out she had been playing with this injury for five years.
Before surgery, Votto did everything to prepare herself for it. “I like working out and being active, so I went to the gym a lot before my surgery to strengthen my hips and legs to prepare myself,” Votto said.
Votto said this helped her with the recovery process a lot.
“The recovery was faster than expected, I was supposed to be on crutches for six weeks but only ended using them for three days,” she said.
The most memorable experience she has with her team happened this past month during the Florida trip.
“We all played as a team, we were all there for each other, we had so much fun,” Votto said.
During her time being an Owl, she made the LEC All-Academic team.
Last year she hit her first home run, and said that was something she’ll never forget. Votto also hit .314 on base percentage in 24 games with two doubles and a home run. She went three for three with a run scored against University of New England and went five for nine with two RBI in the doubleheader at University of Southern Maine overall, Keeneowls.com reported.
Last year was also the first time the softball team didn’t qualify for the LEC tournament, so she wants to make it to and win the LECs for her final year at Keene State.
Head coach did not respond in time for deadline.
Adriana Sanchez can be contacted
at asanchez@kscequinox.com
