Hi Softball World,
My name is Molly Grumbo. I am a junior catcher majoring in Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. Yes, LMU is a Division 1 University, currently at an RPI of 75. Loyola Marymount University is in the West Coast Conference- with other teams that include St. Mary’s, San Diego, Pacific, Santa Clara, and BYU. Our team has been practicing hard since January 13th. This year we play teams like UCLA (Apr. 20), Oregon (March 6), LSU (Feb. 27), Michigan (Feb. 28), and many more.
For those that do not know me, I am from Orange County, California. I have been playing softball since I was eight years old. I started playing in Cypress Recreational League in Cypress, CA. I started catching at the age of 10. I played for California Cruisers, Team Mizuno, and OC Batbusters. I have played for coaches like Jay Sievers, Robert Young, Mike Stith, and Mark Campbell. I had the privilege of taking lessons with Jen Schroeder and Mark Campbell. I went to Sunny Hills High School, where I played with Shay Knighten (Oklahoma) and Taylor Okada (Univ. of Maryland). In high school, I played third base my freshman year and was catcher from my sophomore to senior year. I also was a four-year varsity basketball starter.
Now a little about my family. My dad, Mike, is an extremely hard worker. He taught me to be strong, competitive, and disciplined. My mom, Sheila, is an amazing person and definitely my biggest fan! She taught me to be passionate, confident, and positive. My brother, Jordan, is the biggest goofball. Since we were five years apart, I was always trying to beat him in everything. Of course, he would never let me win. He taught me to always get up when I fall and never take anything lightly. The last member of the Grumbo family is our wiener dog, Princess. No, I did not name her- Jordan did. Our relationship has always been a love-hate relationship. My family loves to say I am Sid from Toy Story. HAHAHA
I am a Business Administration major. Once I graduate, I hope to work for a Fortune 500 company. This semester, I am taking 15 credits, which include a Public Relations class, three management classes, and a computer class. Loyola Marymount is a private Jesuit university. So, one of my classes includes how to incorporate your faith into business- which I find pretty cool. I also work with the LMU Athletic department, helping with events management… basically all the behind the scenes things that go into playing sports. I do things like making sure officials are taken care of and are on the court/field at the appropriate time; helping with ticketing; and doing laundry. So, with playing softball, traveling, working, and classes – my schedule is pretty busy.
Once everyone got back to school after the holidays, after traveling; binge-watching Netflix; eating way too much; and spending the much-needed family time, it was time to get to work. We hit the ground running with practice from 8:30-12:30am. In order to make sure everyone put in work over winter break, we had two conditioning tests, which were fun and nerve racking; every college player knows that queasy feeling you get when you are about to run the beep test. As long as you do what you are supposed to do over break and run your hardest, everyone does great. It was awesome to get everyone together! Our team has 9 freshmen, 6 sophomores, 7 juniors, and 1 senior. We have 5 transfers. We are coming off a good year having a 40-21 record. We finished second in conference behind BYU and finished third in the NISC tournament. Our goal is to do better than last year, win conference, and then win a national championship. I am super excited for this season to get started!
Hope you enjoyed reading my blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below and I will do my best answering them at the end on my next blog. Thank you for reading!
