Tag: trailblazer

Ali Krieger – Flashback

Today I want to focus on that one women’s world cup champion in soccer, who I was not only blessed to interview twice, but also work by her side organizing and running soccer camps for a short time. Ali Krieger recently retired from a long and storied career in women’s soccer. At the International level, she was an Olympian and two-time Women’s World Cup Champion, who earned 108 caps on USWNT. At the club level, she played in Germany and Sweden as well a in the United States in both the W-League and the NWSL. She played for the Washington Spirit, Orlando Pride and NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL.

However, the Ali Krieger that I came to know was so much more than just an incredibly talented soccer player. She was one of the most humble and genuine human beings that I ever met. She has a strong desire to use her platform to be a positive role model and give back to the next generation.

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Rachel Folden – Using a Coaching Mindset of Love

Rachel Folden is a minor league Hitting Coach in professional baseball, the first female to hold such a position in her organization. Folden also launched EliteFastpitch.tv, the most comprehensive hitting drill library available for softball players. Now players from around the world can train with Rachel Folden and her team at Folden Fastpitch. Folden Fastpitch also partners with Elite Baseball Training to provide hitting consultation for baseball and softball teams at the professional, college, high school and travel ball level. Folden and her team put on numerous camps and clinics across the country, primarily in the skills of hitting and catching.

A former professional softball player in the NPF (National Pro Fastpitch), Folden retired after the 2012 season, after 5 years in the NPF. Folden played for two professional teams, the Carolina Diamonds in 2012, and the Chicago Bandits from 2008-2012. She finished her career with 41 home runs, 122 RBI, 101 walks, and 28 doubles, which are all-time top 10 marks. She was the Rookie of the Year in 2008, a 4-time All-NPF Catcher, and the 2011 Offensive Player of the Year. She won two NPF Championships with the Bandits in 2008 and 2011.

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Erin Pappas – Ballplayer, Nature Lover, Single Mom, and Hero

Erin and I first connected through social media back in 2016 during the time that I was building my network of female baseball players and advocates of women and girls playing baseball.  We immediately connected because she was also an avid Red Sox fan.  Like many of the women that I was connecting with at that time, she had participated in the first ever Boston Red Sox Women’s Fantasy Camp.

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Rocky McCann – Reconnecting with another Silver Bullet

This was the last podcast that I was able to do while Sandy and I were at the BFA Nationals in Aberdeen, Maryland.  She puts the explanation point on the ten amazing women that I was able to sit down with and talk to at that event.

Rocky is the third former Colorado Silver Bullet as well as the third member of Evolution Girl’s Baseball that I was able to sit down and talk with.

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Beth Greenwood – Wisdom Beyond Her Years

Beth and I first met back in 2018 when she was on a road trip from New England to Pittsburgh with mutual friends of ours, Erin Pappas and Jacque Reynolds to participate in an women’s baseball event that the Pirates were sponsoring.  On the way through, they stopped by the sports complex that I was managing at the time just outside of Reading, Pennsylvania.

It was a great visit, and Beth and I, who would have been 18 at the time and just out of high school, connected on Facebook.  Since then, I have been able to follow her journey as she became one of only seven young women to be rostered on an NCAA baseball team this past spring.

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Jennifer Hammond – Baseball is in her Blood

Jennifer literally eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball. I’m pretty sure that if you took an X-Ray of her chest, you would see a baseball beating as her heart.  At one point in her life, she said that if she could live on a baseball field, she would.  Her dream was very close to coming true when we were able to connect and talk at the Baseball for All Nationals as she was juggling her coaching duties between both the DC Force Girl’s Baseball team and the Alexandria Aces of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Summer League.

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Denae Benites – Growing with the BFA Nationals

Denae is a member of the Evolution Girl’s Baseball 19-U program as well as a member of the US Women’s National Baseball team that won the gold medal in Mexico in 2019.

Still on location at the Baseball for All Nationals, Denae has been participating in the BFA National tournament since 2016 when she played in the 2nd annual event in San Francisco.  Even at a young age, Denae understands the importance of paving the way and helping to create more opportunities for the young girl’s that will be following behind her.

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Alex Oglesby – An Evolution of Baseball

Alex is a former member of the United States Women’s National Baseball team, as well a current member of national team coaching staff and the founder and president of the San Francisco based, Evolution Girls Baseball program.

This was another one of the podcasts that I was able to do on location at the Baseball for All Nationals in Aberdeen, MD.

We talk about her journey from baseball player to baseball coach.  She played in a women’s professional baseball league and then onto the US Women’s National team.  She was named to the national team coaching staff in 2019.

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Maybelle Blair & Shirley Burkovich – Two Trailblazers Still Going Strong

Maybelle and Shirley were former players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), the league in which the movie, A League of Their Own was based on.

I originally met them back in 2016, when I was still with the BIG Vision Foundation.  We partnered with the International Women’s Baseball Center (IWBC), in which Maybelle and Shirley serve as board members, to conduct the Ruth Hartman Memorial Girl’s Baseball Festival.

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Anna Kimbrell – A Trailblazer Starting to Give Back

As we were mapping out our route on this leg of our journey, I realized that we’d be going through Anna Kimbrell’s neck of the woods.  I had seen on Facebook that she had just started conducting some baseball clinics for girls at K3 Sports Academy in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

I reached out to her to see if she’d be ok with us stopping by the clinic and then doing a podcast together.  She quickly agreed to the podcast and I was excited to finally get a chance to meet her in person and hear her story.

Kimbrell, a catcher for Team USA Women’s baseball has been affiliated with the organization since she was only 15 years old.

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