Red Squad Takes Day One of OKC Challenge
November 20, 2014 | Softball
The University of Louisville softball team completed day one of the 2014 Oklahoma City Challenge and senior shortstop Whitney Arion has resumed her role as the team's official blogger. Below is her recap of the opening day.
Truck Push Tradition
OKC Challenge is finally here and day one is now in the books. Today's event was an oldie but goody, the KFEC truck push. The truck push is exactly what it sounds like - we had to push a huge diesel truck around a 2.5 mile loop in the least amount of time possible. This also isn't your ordinary loop, for all you NASCAR fans out there. There are a couple of hills that make this loop a great challenge. I would also like to note everyone that has ever played for Louisville Softball has had the privilege of experiencing the truck push at least once in their career and the stories live on. It's the perfect grit test and it also showcases a team's communication skills, mental toughness, and strategic execution.
Early morning grind
Teams were to be geared up and ready to compete at 6 a.m. on the dot. However, each team was up much earlier, making sure they were well-stretched before going out in 22-degree weather. It's no surprise to say that we had on layers upon layers upon layers of clothing! Each event starts out exactly the same way, team captains are called over for a coin flip. Winner of the coin flip gets to choose between the options that are given. In this case, black squad won the coin flip and chose to push the truck first while the other team waited. There are advantages and disadvantages to both choices. If you go first, it is less likely you will be stopped by all the traffic from the cattle shows, which can bring you to a stop. This can be extremely difficult to recover from because of all the momentum you have lost from coming to a complete stop. On the other hand the team that goes second has the first team's time in mind, which can also be used as a little extra fuel in tank.
The rules
In addition to the truck, there were two medicine balls that had to be carried the entire 2.5 miles. One weighing 20 lbs. and the other 12 lbs. There were also three rules that each team had to abide by. Rule 1: five people had to be pushing the truck at all times, no more and no less; rule 2: all team members who were not pushing truck could not run ahead of truck; and rule 3, the medicine balls cannot be dropped. If a team breaks any of these rules, the consequence is a one-minute penalty, which can be lethal.
Scoreboard
And the Black Squad was off! Our team had battled long and hard with that truck for 37:41. At the time I felt like it couldn't have gone better. We executed our transitions, the communication was on point, and everyone gave it their all. When we came up on the last 100 yards, I had never been so happy to see a finish line in my life! I don't know about you, but pushing a truck is checked off my bucket list for good.
After the Red Squad had taken off, we were keeping track minute by minute, making it as suspenseful as it could possible get. The anticipation was killing us. The truck, finally in our vision for about 100 yards came to a halting stop at a breathtaking 36:15 minutes making the red squad victorious for day one of the OKC Challenge. They have collected their 200 points and passed go!
A game of inches
There is a valuable lesson learned from today's event and I'm sure you hear it all the time, whether you watch softball, football, baseball, etc. It's a game won by inches, which makes the margin for error very small. The little things are what make the big things happen and today's results between the Red Squad and Black Squad was a great demonstration of this.
There is a quote by Al Pacino in the movie "On Any Given Sunday" that says, "You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football because in either game, life or football the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or too early, you don't quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second." Louisville Softball is a team, that fights for that inch.
