The article lists 21 young breakout players in 2021, which include Brendan Aaronson, Darryl Dike, and Trinity Rodman among others. That's pretty high-flying company. Well done Korbin
First of all, Korbin graduated from high school in 3 years, so she is young. Here, in Korbin's own words is how she ended up at Notre Dame.
"The very first time I was recruited, I was playing up a couple years. I don’t remember which showcase it was exactly, but I do remember it was one of my first tournaments playing at Eclipse. I remember playing my hardest and right after that, Notre Dame reached out to me. They told me they had been watching me for a long time, and I was just stunned by that. There weren’t many schools out there that I was interested in at the time, I just heard from Notre Dame, and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. I want to go to that school right now.’ There were a few other schools I looked at. Penn State was one of them. I was going to visit Pepperdine, but I decided that it wasn’t for me."
"But what ultimately got me to commit to Notre Dame was just the family and community that it offered. I remember going to my first practice on my visit and all the girls were just so welcoming. And when they were practicing, it was such a friendly and team environment. They were all laughing together, having fun, and I just loved doing that too. And then once the coach blew the whistle, it was like, “Game time. Let’s get this done. Let’s work hard. Get this practice done and learn everything that we need to learn.” I was very motivated and that pushed me to commit to Notre Dame."
[Baba back]
Usually I don't pay much attention to all the "family atmosphere" stuff, but what Korbin said about having fun in practice and playing hard seemed to ring true. Good job Coach Nate Norman.
I'm also interested in how she and Aly Akers (out all last year with an injury) play together.
Finally, I hope we don't lose her to the pros before her 4 years.
One of my best friends is a fellow grad from the class of 1967 and has three sons (two ND grads BTW). He was an assistant coach of hsi parish's grade school girls' volleyball team. He commented to me that when they had choose-up games that the captains would pick their friends first, even if they were poor players.
When men have choose-up games the best player wants first pick and tries to have the other captain be a bad player. You're trying to win by manipulating the system. You hear all sorts of stories (see Yankees during Reggie Jackson years) when players on the same team hate the guts of other players and jsut deal with it.
When you watch a girls' softball game, at times the game seems to take second place to the dance move and the all-important "do we wear ribbons or not". The comradery seems a much bigger aspect of women's sports (it seems to me). So all this player A and player B are good friends seems a big deal.
My daughter's high school had two future softball All American players a year apart. Sometimes you think that getting the older girl gives a college team a leg up with the second girl. The younger girl (who seemed to me to be very low key and not a prima donna) told recruiters she wasn't going to the same school as the older. (My guess: either parents of older girl were a pain or older girl wanted to pitch and younger girl was much better (pitched team to a Natty)