Lessons on preparation, failure learned on the softball field

One week before she graduated in May, Stephanie Ramsey (LA’18) played her last Big Ten softball game. In those waning innings, as she guarded second base, Ramsey surely considered the softball routines that became old hat — batting practice, dugout chatter, road trips. The bittersweet last out, when the Boilermakers exited the Big Ten Tournament, ended an absolute dream come true.

Choosing Purdue may have been hardest on her family. For a minute. Ramsey’s father played baseball at Indiana University and met her mother on the Bloomington campus. Her older sister went to IU, too. “I know it’s not easy for them,” she says, “but they wear the black and gold proudly. Luckily, those are the same colors of my high school in Noblesville.”

In her Boilermaker uniform, Ramsey welcomed her utility player role just to be part of something bigger than herself. “My dad always taught me to be ready when you’re called, to rock your role, whatever it might be,” she says.

From the learning experiences crammed into four years as a student-athlete, Ramsey knows softball has prepared her for the working world. “I think softball is special because it’s a game of failure,” she says. “You have great weekends and some not-so-great weekends. But even if you’re struggling, the team can be doing very well.”

Ramsey has also learned to trust the process. Practice may not lead to perfection. A well-known baseball axiom says the best hitters are unsuccessful more than 60 percent of the time. Yet she kept fighting, positioning herself for the magical possibilities of the game’s timing — the tailor-made double play, the perfect suicide squeeze, or the pinch-hit home run.

With her communications degree in hand, Ramsey would love to work in public relations for an NFL team. Should interviewers ask her about a potential role, she could certainly sell herself as a team player.