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In a sport, where every pitch counts and every swing holds potential, Teaghen Amwoza remains a force to be reckoned with on the diamond. From Yorkville. Ill., she has traveled quite a way to leave her cleat print on Winona State University’s women’s softball team.
Softball has been a part of Amwoza’s life for as long as she can remember.
“Growing up, I participated in various activities and sports, but softball is what I enjoyed and succeeded most in,” she said. “My dad also played a role in influencing me because he played competitive slow-pitch softball.”
As a result, Amwoza searched for a competitive college team that would push her to perform at her best, but also offer her excellent educational opportunities, and Winona State was where she found her place.
During her time on the team, Amwoza has learned how to deal with the stress and pressure that comes with being a student-athlete. The softball team takes to the road often for extensive trips that can be both daunting and exhausting, but she has found that communication and time management make the stress of a missed class much easier to handle.
She has also learned teamwork and leadership skills. As a fourth year on the team, she has stepped up to guide, motivate, and teach her younger counterparts, all of which create a safe and welcoming environment for incoming players, and is an excellent encouragement for team performance.
Of course, as an athlete, she has also learned personal growth skills such as self-discipline and the importance of hard work even in times when the task feels insurmountable.
“Practicing three to four hours every day in the off-season/pre-season and playing every weekend in-season becomes mentally and physically hard,” Amwoza said. “I learned how to keep pushing and stay motivated regardless of how I was feeling.”
All these skills certainly pay off once she steps onto the field and have led to the immense amount of improvement both her play and her personality have undergone in her four years on the team.
Amwoza found that she has likely improved the most in her knowledge of defensive situations as a result of learning a new position on the field.
“You can just tell that they really enjoy playing with each other,” a frequent student spectator of the softball teams home games said. “Even from the stands you can see them hyping each other up and really just acting like best friends instead of just teammates.”
Along with improvement, she also acknowledged that working on her acceptance of failure is important to her. Softball, as with any sport, involves both wins and losses, so learning not to misplace blame onto oneself in situations where a game does not go as intended is just as important as learning to swing the bat.
Outside of sports, Amwoza is pursuing Clinical Exercise Science and will be participating in an internship in a cardiac rehabilitation program over the summer to complete and receive her degree, meaning this is her last semester as a Warrior.
Leaving her team is, of course, a difficult feat, but she hopes to encourage her younger teammates to simply have fun with the game she is passionate about. Too much pressure can make the game feel suffocating rather than enjoyable, after all.
“At the end of the day, softball is just a game, and we should have a good time playing it,” Amwoza said.
Her stand-out personality and spotlight-worthy play will certainly be missed as she moves along to bigger and better horizons in her future endeavors.
