Missing your senior season

This is part one of a two part series on what it like missing out on your senior season due to the Corona-virus.

Missing big milestones of their senior year shortchanges senior high school students across the country: Prom, senior skip day, the list goes on and on. Not being able to play sports but also losing that chance to advance through the playoffs.

One of those seniors is Marika Spector. She has never let her small stature get in the way of playing softball.

“I’m a utility player. I’ve played every position, including pitcher. I do not catch, I’m too small. I don’t like that it is hard on the knees. My favorite? I like to pitch and wherever coach wants me to play.”

She’s been attending Wimberley Schools since kindergarten and has enjoyed her junior teammates, as she is the only senior on the team. “I think we could’ve gone far. A lot of the girls learned new things. The coach (Robert Klick) made the work mostly on skills and drills, the basics. That helped a lot,” Marika continued.

“As a senior I’ve seen the juniors become more dedicated, we could have gone far. State is a dream, that would be really cool, to have a chance, on a small team. Some of those girls can hit pretty far.”

As an athlete, at Wimberley’s district track meet she decided to run the 100 and came in second. “It was something to do.” Other sports she has played include volleyball in middle school, cross country. She’s dabbled in tennis and played basketball until she was a sophomore.

Then she decided to take her parents advice that she was small and should concentrate on softball. Her worst memory in softball happened in her freshman year.

“We not only lost, but we played until we could not play anymore, it was 1 a.m. It was the longest game I’ve ever played. We fell apart when they hit a home run, maybe in the 11th and being out there forever.”

Her best memory was playing with her Select softball team and going to South Carolina for Nationals, playing with a friend who has since passed away.

This fall she plans on attending Otero Junior College in Colorado on a scholarship and concentrate on furthering her scholastic and athletic career at a larger college. “I plan on being a nurse practitioner. I want to work in the health field everyday.”

Graduating from the high school, she already has health field certifications for a future job.

Softball has been a blessing to her. A former pitching coach of hers, “a second dad,” recently passed and left her with good sound advice. “He always told me to focus on what you want. It’s given me courage. A lot of kids… don’t put in the work. When you are committed, you have to keep going. You keep going until you cannot.”