Straight out of Anderson Township in Cincinnati, Ohio, Loren Elizabeth Combs loves the color green, and was once on her high school bowling team — and even received the MVP award her junior year for the sport. Although she enjoyed bowling, softball has been the one sport to steal her heart ever since she could hold a bat in her hand. Her love for the sport started when she was eight years old.
Q: What is your favorite thing about softball?
A: For me, it’s my getaway. I’ve loved this sport ever since I discovered I was good at it, and enjoy the adrenaline rush I get when it’s game time, especially when I’m running the bases. Not to mention my incredible teammates that support me and are there for me through thick and thin.
Q: How did you get involved with softball?
A: Believe me, I tried almost every sport, including tennis, golf, soccer, basketball, bowling, cheerleading and track, but I never wanted to put my glove away.
Q: What has been your best game during your collegiate career?
A: The first one that comes to mind would be one of my first collegiate games that took place in Florida. I got my one and only homerun, and it was in the park. Normally, for your first collegiate homerun you get to keep the ball, but since mine was in the park, we unfortunately had to keep playing with that ball.
Q: After graduating, what will you miss about your team?
A: Definitely our goofiness and how incredibly weird we are when we are all together.
Q: Who has been your biggest supporter when playing this game?
A: My parents, by far. They have not missed a game my whole collegiate career. They travel to every away and home game, including our Spring Break down to Florida.
Q: Do you have a ritual that you perform before each game? If so, what is it?
A: As a team, in order to get energized, we like to blare “Formation” by Queen B herself and dance. But individually, I like to go into each game with a clear mind, nothing special. I like to just breathe.
Q: What position do you play? Have you always played this position?
A: I play shortstop, and I’ve played it since I was 10 years old. In my previous years, I have played first, catcher, pitcher and outfield, but shortstop seemed to get most of the action, and I’m one that needs to be active or I lose interest pretty quickly.
Q: How do you manage your grades and sport?
A: Balancing my grades and softball is not as difficult as it’s made out to be. I’m currently student teaching, which is basically a full-time unpaid job, so my days are long and nights are longer. I like to think I’m well organized, which plays a big part of balancing the two, along with managing my time and communicating with all the important people I interact with, including my coaches, clinical faculties, supervisor and professors.
Q: If you could give any advice to an incoming freshman who is going to play softball, what would it be?
A: Enjoy it, because it flies by. It is very sad to think my softball career is coming to a close so quickly when it feels like just yesterday I had my in the park homerun freshman year.
