CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — Softball players from around the Coastal Bend were eager to get better today and learn under two Team USA athletes, Janae Jefferson and Odicci Alexander. Turf Sports Complex hosted the camp at Veterans Memorial High School.
"Just giving back to the sport in general and knowing that I had girls that I looked up to when I was their age," Janae Jefferson, USA second baseman, Texas Longhorn alum, said. "Just having those people to inspire and be a role model to."
The young athletes worked on throwing transitions, agility drills and more, but the biggest lesson Alexander shared to pitchers is to never give up.
"When you do walk 30 batters or give up home runs, like it is what it is," Odicci Alexander, USA right-handed pitcher, James Madison alum, said. "At the end of the day this is a game that you play and it's not who you are. If you're good at it, so what right? I think that's the biggest thing for me is so what."
Jefferson helped lead the Texas Longhorns to a College World Series runner-up finish this past spring season.
"It was a once in a lifetime feeling really," Jefferson said. "I know not a lot of players get to experience the College World Series, so leading my team to that moment was a huge accomplishment for me and that was something I wanted to achieve going into my senior year."
Back in 2021, Alexander pitched for James Madison University in the C-W-S. They did not win, but they did take down No. 1 Oklahoma.
"We doubted ourselves as well just because the doubts we had from other people, but I mean they can call us the Cinderella story or whatever," Alexander said. "We played for each other and we stuck with each other and I think that's what got us so far."
