Dec. 10, 2007
The following story appears in the December edition of KnightVision. Produced 10 times per year, KnightVision is the official publication of the UCF Athletics Asssociation. Each issue includes stories about UCF teams, student-athletes and coaches. To order 10 exciting issues from August through June, call 1-888-877-4373 (ext. 121) or 336-768-3400 (ext. 121).
When it comes to softball, former UCF standout Stephanie Best has lived the charmed life.
The Fort Mill, S.C., native was a member of UCF's first softball team in 2002 and holds the program's career records in batting average (.384), runs scored (216), RBI (213), hits (285), home runs (71), slugging percentage (.756), total bases (562), on-base percentage (.487), walks (147) and games played (272).
Not only that, but Best paced the nation in home runs, led her team to the 2005 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship and was named the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year and first team All-Atlantic Sun her final three seasons. She received A-Sun All-Academic Team accolades all four years and was a nominee for the 2005 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Best was also named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-Southeast Region first team in 2003 and second team in both 2004 and 2005. She earned her way on to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III first team her sophomore and junior seasons, while making the second team as a senior.
Only adding to her magnificent achievements, Best became the first player from UCF to get drafted into the National Pro Fastpitch league by the New England Riptide in 2005. Following her stint with the Riptide, Best played the 2006 season with the Connecticut Brackettes organization, helping lead her team to the championship game.
This summer, Best capped off her long list of accomplishments by winning the 2007 NPF regular-season and championship titles with the Washington Glory, helping the team win the World Series of professional softball.
"Being on a championship team like that was unbelievable," Best said. "There's not a lot that can replace it. I've been on some teams that have won different things, such as winning the conference championship my senior year at UCF, which at the time for me meant the world. But the pro league is a little different because you are at a different level. You are playing with the best girls in the country. Olympic players are spread out throughout the league, so you are playing the top competition on a daily basis. It was very exciting being on a team of girls that were of that caliber."
Best credits UCF as having more than prepared her for the hard work and dedication it took to help lead her team to softball's most coveted prize.
"UCF prepared me by making everything easier," Best stated. "When you are a college athlete you have to dedicate so much of your time and energy to be somewhere everyday - practices everyday, games everyday. In the spring we always played 60 or 70 games during a three-month span and that's exactly how it is in the pro league. So nothing has changed as far as that goes.
"The pro league is probably easier because we don't have to practice every single day for four hours like we did in college. In the pros, if you play well a couple days in a row there is a good chance that you are going to get a couple of days off. Being a student-athlete was a little bit tougher because the schedule was a little more rigorous. We travel a lot in our league, but it's nothing that we haven't done before in college. We also don't play double-headers like we did while I was at UCF. We play four games a week, one game a night. Even though we don't get done with our game until 10 or 11 at night, we have the opportunity to sleep in the next day, whereas in college you didn't have that luxury. You had to go to class, and then work out and once workouts were over you might have to go back to class."
What Best was not prepared for after joining the NPF was the amount of time that she would spend motivating herself to do workouts on her own in the offseason and being away from her team for eight to nine months at a time, which was a huge difference from her days as a Knight.
"The biggest difference is the amount of time you spend doing your sport," Best said. "When you are in college you are doing something everyday to prepare yourself, whether it's designing team workouts, practicing or watching film. In the pros, you have an eight or nine month offseason, so you have to do most of your workouts on your own. It's hard to stay on top of your game when you aren't doing something everyday in a team atmosphere, which is kind of essential to be successful."
Working with her teammates everyday and constantly pushing each other to get better is one thing that Best wishes she could do more often, like her days at UCF.
"It may sound crazy, but I miss constantly being on the grind and getting better," Best said. "I miss working hard everyday. I miss being around teammates everyday, because that is something that you cannot replace. That is something that right now I am holding on to and am thankful for every time summer rolls around, because I know I'm going to be on a team again and around girls that I can trust. We all have the same kind of mind set. We like playing because we all like being competitive, we like being on a team and we like winning."
Looking back on all of her successes and accomplishments, Best takes the most pride in the legacy that she has left behind at UCF and the program that she helped build.
"I take so much pride in knowing that I helped build the softball program to where it is today," Best stated. "Even though I am not on the team anymore, I feel like a piece of myself, as well as about 10 other girls that were there that first year, is still at UCF. I know that I don't have a locker in that locker room, but there will always be a piece of me that feels like I belong with UCF softball."
- Sarah Tarasewicz