My family comes first. We are each other\u2019s biggest cheerleaders when it comes to any accomplishment. There\u2019s so much pride in all that our family has achieved.<\/p>\n
My sister played softball at TCNJ before me, and my family and I watched her from the bleachers at almost every home game. Now the script has flipped. I love to look up and see them there cheering for me.<\/p>\n
I was 12 years old when I started catching. The first time the ball came at me at 45\u201350 miles per hour, it definitely left some beauty marks on my body. But I embraced my view of the game from behind the plate.<\/p>\n
I have a little bit of an attachment issue with my gloves. I\u2019ve only had two throughout my career as a catcher, and I know they\u2019ve given me good mojo. I used my original catcher\u2019s mitt for eight years until the ball blew a hole straight through the middle of it. My backup glove for that game is the one I still use today.<\/p>\n
My current glove is an extension of my left hand and has undergone about a dozen surgeries. My dad relaces and repads it and adds extra leather from other gloves so I can keep using it. What started as a black leather mitt is now a mix of black, tan, and bright orange.<\/p>\n
My parents run our family\u2019s real estate business, and my sister, brother, and I support them. My mom and sister show the homes, and my dad, brother, and I focus on the background work like typing up contracts and setting up inspections.<\/p>\n
Last year I passed the New Jersey Real Estate Commission Licensing Exam. I want to pair my license with my business degree to focus on an issue that is important to me: finding affordable housing for recent college graduates and young professionals.<\/p>\n
Picture: John Emerson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No matter her pursuit, TCNJ\u2019s softball backstop has home covered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":12112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lions-roar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12111"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12409,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111\/revisions\/12409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}