Nothing fully sunk in with Erika Piancastelli until 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, when she and her McNeese State teammates boarded a bus bound for a Houston airport.
“Once we’re on the plane,” Piancastelli said Monday, “it’ll really hit me.”
Piancastelli, the Cowgirls’ All-American catcher, is one of five Californians returning home this weekend as part of McNeese’s five-game stint in the San Diego Classic beginning Thursday.
Piancastelli, Tori Yanitor and Hailey Drew all played on the same travel softball team, the San Diego Rebels. The current team and the trio’s childhood coaches will be in attendance. As will Piancastelli’s parents — who only make it to Lake Charles once a season, she estimates — and other extended family.
Taylor Schmidt’s got a smaller crew, but they’re coming from all corners. An uncle from Las Vegas is driving in. So are grandparents from Arizona.
“When it comes down to it, it’s still a game and we have to do what we do best,” said Schmidt, a senior from Yorba Linda, Calif. “We have to play our game, do what we do best. It’s just a different crowd. Luckily, for us, it’s our family.”
The trip was planned years in advance, starting when this California pipeline’s foundation was first laid. It’s not uncommon in any sport for college coaches to schedule one game or series in the hometown of a player who travelled far away to fulfill his or her dreams.
“Back when (former) coach (Joanna) Hardin was here, we started talking about getting them back to the West coast, playing in front of their high school family and friends,” first-year Cowgirls coach James Landreneau said. “It was very important to us.”
Truth be told, the journey may mean just as much to the Cowgirls’ future than their present. It is little secret the program ventures outside of Louisiana — to all ends of America — recruiting talent to a program with which few outside of this state are familiar. Keeping the familiarity strong is crucial.
Schmidt’s youth career was spent dreaming of leaving California for no other reason than she wanted to experience what else the country had to offer. She laughed Monday that, no, even she did not know where Lake Charles or McNeese was when first approached by coaches.
“Every year I go back home, more and more people know about us,” Schmidt said. “It’s nice to go home and people know who we are. It gives other girls a look like ‘Hey, I can do that, I can go there and do the same thing they can.’”
Set aside the emotions, pomp and circumstance and there is still softball to be played. The Cowgirls, fresh off their most impressive win of the season against South Alabama, play five games in three days. Two, against San Diego State and BYU, are against teams receiving votes in national polls.
“I know I want to perform in front of my family and I want to do well, but I have to understand my role and the role of my teammates,” Drew said. “I can’t win it by myself.”
Yes, she’ll have some help.
“We’re going to pack the house and I’m really excited,” Drew said. “I think we might have more McNeese fans there than any other teams.”
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