Monica Abbott, the two-time Olympic silver medalist and not too long ago retired skilled softball participant, was in her fifth-grade class when she declared her athletic intentions. Assigned to analysis, write, and current a paper about one of many states within the Union, she’d been hoping for a well-known state however was upset to have been given Georgia. Until she realized that Atlanta was internet hosting the Olympics the next 12 months and that softball was making its debut on the Games. USA introduced house the Gold.
At the top of her presentation on Georgia, Abbott mentioned, “And I’m going to pitch in the Olympics. I’ll see you there!”
Abbott, who grew up in Salinas, California, a spot she calls a giant metropolis that thinks it’s a small city or vice versa, began taking part in softball with the Salinas Salad Bowl Bobby Sox, a softball league established to provide younger ladies an opportunity to expertise the thrill of taking part in quick pitch softball.
She was 12 years outdated when she negotiated together with her mother to have her first pitching lesson. Her mother got here again with an inventory of chores. Abbott returned with the listing checked off, and a bucket of softballs. Reportedly, it was laborious on parked vehicles, shrubbery, and her dad’s glasses, however it was a begin.
By the time Abbott graduated from North Salinas High, she had a variety of choices as she thought-about faculty. As she narrowed her listing of universities, a number of of which had famend softball packages, she made a seemingly daring transfer to attend University of Tennessee, whose program was simply getting going. Having determined, fairly than becoming a member of a profitable program and turning into a nationwide champion “right off the bat,” she selected to go someplace that allowed her to develop her expertise.
“So, she went to Tennessee and rocked their softball world. Monica filled the stands like nobody could,” mentioned creator Debby Schriver, who first provided to put in writing Abbott’s story simply earlier than she graduated from UT. “The University had asked me to write a book, ‘In the Footsteps of Champions,’ about the UT women’s athletics program. I was able to interview Monica at the end of her collegiate career in 2007 and was so taken with her, I said, ‘If you ever want to write a book, I want to work with you’.”
Abbott mentioned sure, however not but. She nonetheless had a narrative to construct.
The famend left-handed pitcher, identified for her “riseball pitch,” thrown on an ascending trajectory and with a backspin to create a rising movement, retired on the finish of February after pitching for 20 years with Team USA, and a concurrent 16-year skilled profession within the United States and Japan. She determined she was prepared to put in writing.
“I was thinking about writing my story before the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games played in 2021,” mentioned Abbott, “but I decided to postpone it until the timing felt right. After the games, UT graduates and authors Debby and Rob Schriver reached out, and I knew I was ready to share my story outside the pitching circle.”
Putting it in phrases
“Rise and Shine: The Monica Abbott Story,” advised by Abbott with Debby and Rob Shriver, shares the story of Abbott’s stellar softball profession within the context of the insights and classes she realized on and off the sphere.
“The book talks a lot about my story, how I went from this girl from Salinas, one of five kids whose parents own the Fosters Freeze,” mentioned Abbott, “to making it to the Olympics once and again 12 years later, medaling both times. My story is one of perseverance and determination, of consistency and work ethic, and finding ways to capture an opportunity when it presents itself.”
The hardest half about growing her ebook, she says, was breaking it down to incorporate all of the vital chapters in her life. Ultimately, with assist from the Schrivers, she centered on how she began taking part in as a younger woman, her collegiate profession, adopted by her years taking part in with Team USA and her skilled profession, the 2008 and 2020 Olympics, and her dedication to the Women’s Empowerment Movement.
“I couldn’t put everything I might have wanted to into the book,” she mentioned, “but it’s a good start for book one.”
Committed to facilitating a ebook whose story belongs to Abbott, Debby and Rob Schriver spent hours speaking together with her over the course of many interviews. Rob Schriver is especially good at capturing the voice of the folks he interviews, says Debby, whereas she is a pure storyteller, he says. In tandem writing careers which have produced many revealed books, that is the primary ebook the Schrivers have accomplished collectively.
Debby Schriver, a contract author, has retired from a 32-year profession on the University of Tennessee. This is her fifth ebook. Rob Schriver, a technical author for Oakridge National Lab, can be a contract author and editor for the University of Tennessee Press. This is his third ebook.
Monica Abbott has returned to the Peninsula together with her husband, enterprise proprietor Jeff Bower, to make their house in Spreckels.
“This is such a beautiful area,” mentioned Abbott, “with its moderate climate, the best fruits and vegetables ever, and amazing wine. And it’s home. It always seemed like I would have a coming home plan, and being able to be around family is important as I start to settle down and figure out what’s next.”
The athlete, understanding {that a} facility for public talking, media, public relations, and advertising and marketing would serve her effectively, graduated from UT with a level in communications. While nonetheless pitching, she went on to earn a grasp’s diploma in sports activities enterprise from Saint Leo, a personal college in Florida identified for its versatile studying choices. She is now turning her consideration to advocating for ladies athletes, educating future softball gamers, and public talking.
“Having retired is OK. It feels good,” she mentioned. “It’s a time to look at yourself and think about what you’ve done so far and what more you can do and where you can have the best impact, for you as a person and for your family, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. It’s sad in some ways, but it’s one of those things when you know, you know. Softball is not a lifelong career, you have to do something else.”
Published by the University of Tennessee Press, “Rise and Shine: The Monica Abbott Story,” can be launched Thursday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com