Student athlete, Maura Fleming, from Central Bucks High School South shares her softball journey from the past eight, almost nine years. She discusses her life as a student athlete and the ups and downs of being one.
“I have been playing softball since I was in third grade, so nine years. I started in the Rec League for WWSO,” from a young age softball has always been a large part of her life. “I got into softball because I grew up around baseball – the team, parents, and siblings became a little second family for me,” Maura shared.
She has played for Souths softball team for all four years of highs school, to make the balance of being an athlete and a student easier Maura, “[selects] the right levels for the courses [she] can handle. She says being a student athlete isn’t always easy, but she gets the job done.
Over the long years she has been playing softball, Maura says her motivation is to “just play for myself”. She expresses great gratitude for the game of softball and the journey she has already had throughout her life and is eager to continue her journey at Kutztown.
“There are always tough days and tough tournaments – but my mindset is to keep pushing and stay in your lane,’ is what keeps Maura devoted to the sport. She stated that even though she puts so much pressure on herself, the mental part that comes along with being an athlete is the most important.
Freshman and sophomore year were the toughest for Maura because she was younger and playing on the varsity team. “Being thrown into a team that had already played games together was extremely challenging,” she shared.
But when the season of sophomore softball got started, she “gained confidence” when being appointed varsity captain and was starting at shortstop.
Maura said that going to junior year she felt like a different player and she “played the field much cleaner” as varsity’s starting second baseman. She believes that Coach Matt and the positivity he brought to the team helped them all together.
Even though Maura had a great junior year season, her senior year season is going to be different. “Over a year ago I started having pain in my shoulder, I shrugged it off as soreness,” it turns out the pain she was having was a non-detached partially torn labrum.
She began physical therapy right away and was determined to not let her injury stop her from playing the game she loves the most. Her shoulder started to look better until she began playing twelve games a week for her travel team.
“My arm just slowly got worse and worse,” until her coach, Coach Roman, encouraged her to get it checked out again. It was decided that she needed surgery to fix her shoulder, so on November 22nd 2024 Maura received labrum repair surgery.
“I spent four weeks in a sling, I have physical therapy for twelve weeks. The recovery time is three to six months.” Maura knows that this injury may permit her from playing her senior year season, “I don’t know how it will affect me.”
The chance of not being able to play her senior year is not something Maura could have ever imagined. “It isn’t an ideal situation, but I’ll still be around my team, and I wouldn’t want to end it with anyone else,” she said.
Maura believes that she will become the team manager her senior year given her injury and although she would prefer to be out in the field, she remains thankful for still spending her senior year with her “best friends.”
Despite the good and bad days Maura has had in her softball career, “being on a team has taught [her] that life is bigger than yourself – it is truly a privilege to be surrounded by those that love you and that you love.”
After playing softball for almost a decade, Maura still continues to play the best that she can and recognizes that her teammates mean the world to her. She went on to say that, “your teammates see your failures and your successes, and they grow alongside you.”
She is committed to Kutztown for division two softball and cannot wait to be back on the field getting dirty. Maura has grown so much physically, mentally, and even as a person because of softball and “wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
