Leadership
Not Just a Skill for the Game
By Alexis Winters
As I am entering my final season of being known as “Lexi, the softball player,” I get to look back on the last 16 years of my life being centered around the sport and what it has given me. My athletic career has definitely had its ebbs and flows from the very beginning at the tee-ball fields to today, as I am writing this. Born and raised in the Midlands, I remember as a seven-year-old having to choose what position on the team I wanted to solidify as my own. After trying them all out, I immediately fell in love with catching the moment I put on the clanky leg gear that weighed me down on the Pine Grove softball fields. Afterwards, I played both high-level travel softball for many years, as well as varsity high school ball from seventh grade until I graduated in 2022 as a proud alum of White Knoll High School. In my junior year, I committed to earning my degree and playing softball at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Gratefully, I continued to play my first two years of college ball there and was the starting catcher for both years.
Fast forward to the summer of 2024, which was one of the most overwhelming but rewarding times I could have experienced. That’s when I was given the opportunity to transfer to the University of South Carolina with my coaching staff, who had also made the move to Columbia. For as long as I can remember, playing for USC was my dream! It was the answer to all of the prayers, and God had perfectly woven everything in my life to lead me to that very moment. In our season last year, we broke many records as a team and shattered ceilings that stood above our program. Personally, I had the best season of my career to date, and I was able to live out the childhood dream that I had always wanted, which finally led me to where I am today—I am a few months away from graduating with my bachelor’s degree in psychology and then starting my graduate program in 2026. I have already had my last first practice with the team and last fall ball game, with many more “last firsts” to come in my softball career.
Although this is a very broad layout of what brought me here, it is also the template for who I will be in the future. When I was young, leadership was one of the first qualities that my lifelong catching coach, Carrie Lyons, stressed to me. Not only is it being the loudest person on the field, but it is also thinking many steps ahead to prepare for what can happen. You are given many different responsibilities, but do not expect to be given credit for any of it. It was not until recently that I realized this was a metaphor the entire time. Leadership was not just a skill for the game, it was something that I would use in all aspects of my life. I am prepared for people to look at me for guidance and support through situations, the same way that my teammates do when we are on the field. It took time to understand how to be an effective leader, but all great things take time, don’t they?
If asked about what else I have been able to learn from simply playing a sport, I could list countless lessons: developing time management skills, working well with others, problem-solving, building muscle in healthy ways, developing confidence, and being grateful for what is around me. As much as I would want to highlight only the positives that softball has given me, this would not be truly realistic. Playing what is called “the sport of failure” is very difficult when you are a perfectionist and wanting to have control of things around you. I also struggle to ask others for help when I am unsure of something or even of myself. But I have been able to learn how to work through these forms of adversity, even when it seems unbearable.
As I enter this new chapter of being known as “Lexi, the person,” I hope to exude gratitude and joy for what I have been able to gain from playing softball. I want others to see kindness, loyalty, and selflessness within me. It matters to me that people trust me to guide and lead them in the right direction in the situations of life. Even though I will no longer have the catcher’s gear I once wore on the field, I am fully equipped for what life can throw my way.
