Girl plays baseball on boy's JV high school team скачать в хорошем качестве

Girl plays baseball on boy's JV high school team

BATAVIA, Ohio (Jeff Hirsh) - Opening Day for the reds is Monday, but high school ball in our area is already well under way. Usually it's baseball for the boys, and softball for the girls, but not at one local school. One young woman is breaking barriers while throwing a ball at breaking speeds. The first thing you'll probably notice in this particular baseball game is that the pitcher has a pretty good arm, and the second thing you'll probably notice is that pitcher also has pig tails. "Actually, when I was younger, I was embarrassed being a girl so I tucked my hair under my hat," said Olivia Bricker. "I'm used to the grief but I go out there and yep, I'm a girl." 15-year-old Olivia Bricker is a freshman at Clermont Northeastern High School and a pitcher and outfielder on the Junior-Varsity Baseball Team, the "boys" baseball team. "Oh she's very good. Very fundamentally sound. Boy or girl it doesn't matter to me. She can play, there's no doubt about that," said JV Baseball Coach Cody Cooper "She's got a very flawless swing, good mechanics throwing-wise. She's very talented." Olivia was not born wearing a pair of baseball spikes, but that's pretty close to the truth. Her father, Mike, runs Champions Baseball Academy, a baseball camp and training school, so Olivia was raised with the game. "She would hit off the tee and throw baseballs in the batting cage," said Mike. And Mike also says Olivia was doing this at ages 2 to 4-years-old. As she got older, Olivia did what most female ballplayers do, but went one step beyond: "Play softball, but I just like the game of baseball way better," said Olivia. To teammates like Dustin Lykins, Olivia is a girl who's just one of the guys. "It's not really different. She's a player. She's fun to be around," said Dustin. Most of the team has known Olivia since they were all little kids together, so it's no shock for them to see her playing ball, but the other teams, that's something else. "You always get those weird looks from the boys. I can sometimes hear them whispering 'is that really a girl?' 'Yeah, it's a girl. See her hair?' And it's always fun listening to what they say but I'll just go out there and show them how it's done," said Olivia. Olivia is so good she's been invited to try out for Team USA this summer. Team USA is a women's team which will play international competition. But as for playing baseball with boys, Olivia sees herself as an example for others. "Definitely, I definitely feel like that. I want to encourage all girls to keep trying with baseball, because I know there have been moments which I felt like I didn't want to do this anymore. But I'm glad i stuck with it. It's amazing and it's really fun," said Olivia. Olivia does indeed have big plans for her future. She'd like to play college baseball on a men's team. And as for being the first woman ever to play Major League Baseball, sure it's a long shot. But if you can run and throw and hit, you can dream. "That would be an amazing opportunity to have. To someday make it there, I've got to keep working," said Olivia. Olivia will try out for Team USA, the National Women's Team, after school ends. We'll let you know how she does.