Edwards offers advice for aspiring athletes

Former Sisters High School standout Cassidy Edwards is starting her final year of softball - a sport she has loved and played for 15 years.

"I was 6 when I played my first game and have been playing it ever since," said Edwards, a senior at Boise State University. "It hasn't really hit me that it is my senior year in college. I'm sure it will soon, but it's bittersweet. I've never thought the day would come that would have me saying it's 'my last season.'"

She and her Bronco teammates have high expectations for this season, following last year's 14-38 finish.

"I've been doing a lot of summer workouts, lifting heavy three times a week and working on endurance and sprints on the conditioning side, as well as keeping my arm in shape throwing every week or so, and having a bat in my hand," said Edwards, who was an All-League performer in softball and basketball as an Outlaw during her 2013 senior season.

And, she pointed out that the team has already begun "bonding" in preparation for the upcoming year.

Edwards and Dara Kosanke are the only two former Outlaws to play D1 softball.

After hitting .231 as a junior and splitting her time between second base, the outfield and the bench, Edwards said she wants to have a complete season the way she started and finished 2015. She started 26 of the 42 games in which she played.

Edwards started the first five games last season and was 6-for-16, a robust .375. Then she slumped as her batting average dropped to under .200 and she lost playing time. She kept working and finished with six hits in her final 22 at bats to end the season on a high note.

But the middle of the season resulted in only four hits in 27 at bats.

"To make it simple, last year was a struggle," Edwards said. "I was jumbled up in my own head, trying to figure out where I fit in on the team. I was trying to relearn all of the things I had learned. I started off strong, and then had a few down games and got in my head. From that point I was stuck. I was second-guessing myself and not trusting, and it was really hard to recover from that. But I finally got into a groove towards the end of the season and got my confidence back."

Edwards said the season was a lot of relearning and adjusting the things she had already learned, and adjustments were many. 

"Most of the time it was simple things like the way we set up to throw or how we field the ball," she said. "The pitching was a little different as well, pitchers had a lot more movement and control over where they put the ball, but that was something I could adjust to."

Edwards' .231 batting average was the first time she ever batted under .400. She averaged over .500 in high school and hit better than .400 at Clackamas each of her two seasons.

She figures her strong finish puts her in a good position to compete for a starting spot, most likely in the outfield.

Since her first day of high school ball nearly eight years ago, Edwards has played all nine positions. At CCC, she played shortstop, second, center, third, caught and pitched.

During her days as an Outlaw, Edwards primarily pitched. She put her name in the Outlaws softball record book for strikeouts in a season and the lowest earned run average in a season. Her 236 strikeout total bettered the mark of 228 set by Kosanke (2010) and Edwards' 0.91 ERA was lower than Kosanke's 1.54 mark, also recorded in 2010.

During her sophomore year at CCC, Edwards was named the NWAC Southern Division Player of the Year after batting .407 and recording an 18-5 pitching record with a 2.39 ERA and leading the Cougars to the Southern title and a 35-10 record.

At BSU, she played second, pitched and all three outfield positions.

Edwards said there were several highlights to her first year as a Bronco. One was losing to PAC-12 member Oregon State, 5-4, in eight innings.

"It was a great game, we took a PAC 12 team into extra innings," said Edwards. "I had grown up watching OSU and to be on the same field as them was pretty cool, but to say I competed with OSU was an awesome experience."

Edwards offered some advice for young players who have the dream of playing collegiate ball: Work hard and good things will happen, but it will not be easy.

"It is definitely not easy, and not everyone gets to do it. It takes a ton of hard work, and it takes time," said Edwards, who is majoring in kinesiology. "There are going to be days where you want to quit and be done, but you have to keep pushing through. It will make you stronger and you won't regret a minute of it. You have to overcome the hardships the sport will bring you, like injuries, and remember all the good it brings you. If you follow your dreams and work hard, and never let anyone tell you that you aren't good enough, good things will happen.

"I think the most important lesson is that it's always going to be just a game - it's all the things that it has given to me, the teammates, the coaches, the successes and failure, the memories and all the lessons, that are what helped me to prepare for life."