The Guilford Softball team hosted its first-ever staff appreciation event during their game against Bridgewater College on March 28. 

Every year, Head Coach Charissa Duncan challenges her players to create event proposals for the team to coordinate during their season. This season, one player came up with a staff appreciation game, and Duncan was fully on board. 

“I encourage the girls to be leaders and come up with different events that we can host, especially ones that give back to the community or give back to the people that have given to us,” said Duncan. 

Each softball player invited at least one faculty or staff member who had an impact on their lives. Every staff/faculty member invited then got the chance to throw the first pitch to the player who invited them. A flyer was sent by each player as a formal invitation. 

“We just wanted to show some love and appreciation for those people that are behind the scenes, and also get them out there ot be able to see that [these students] are not just great students in the classroom, that [playing softball] is what they do and they have fun doing it on the field” said Duncan. 

Alongside the flyer, each girl also wrote a personalized thank you letter to the faculty or staff member they chose. 

Senior Shiloh Gray invited Ray Babnik, their athletic trainer. Others in attendance were Bill Folley, Will Pizio, Wess Daniels, Anne Glenn, Rob Whitnell, Zandra Pinnix, and several more. 

“It was really cool to see, I think there were 20 plus staff,” Duncan said.

Anne Glenn, a chemistry professor at Guilford, was invited by Kaylyn Little and Keiya Bullock. 

“I know I have a lot of students who play softball, and I know how much time they spend on it and how hard they work on it,” said Glenn. I appreciated them inviting me, that they thought I was being supportive of what they were trying to do, playing their sport.”

Gray made note of the setup for appreciation before the game. 

“Everyone lined up down the third base line, and all the faculty and staff were on the other side, and then [the staff/faculty] just threw the pitch to whoever invited them,” Gray said.

“I wish I had been warned about that so I could have practiced,” Glenn said, referencing her first pitch while laughing. “I didn’t throw it over her head or too far on the ground in front of her, so it wasn’t too terrible.”

Although she was skeptical about the first pitch, Glenn explained that “it was good to see other faculty and staff that were involved with the student and get a chance to talk to them.”

“The students wrote cards to folks they had invited, and I appreciated getting those cards. That was really nice of them,” Glenn noted in retrospect. 

Coach Duncan now plans to make this a yearly tradition.

“I think it was a good experience, something that we’ll continue to carry on and do again, hopefully next year or the year after,” Duncan said.