Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics
Suiting Up To Find Solutions
October 21, 2022 | Softball
STARKVILLE – Reis Beuerlein stepped into the lab wearing a pair of tights and a long-sleeved shirt covered in dozens of tiny reflective dots. As the lab techs calibrated their system, a skeleton came to life on the monitor.
At that point, Beuerlein couldn't help it. She and her roommate Josey Marron broke into dancing.
"Just doing the Griddy, you know," she said. "It was crazy to watch them calibrate my body and my skeleton. The technology is so fancy and pretty cool."
It was Beuerlein's first of many trips to the athlete engineering department on campus and the motion capture lab that associate head coach Josh Johnson has utilized for the past two years. And while dancing skeletons are fun, the trip was for far more than a Halloween ball.
The motion capture technology allows Johnson to hone in on specific technical adjustments and then show Mississippi State's pitchers the results of those adjustments.
"It's not someone just looking at me and saying, 'Oh, your hips aren't lined up.' He is going to show me, hook me up to a bunch of different wires, and break it down and show it to me," Beuerlein said. "He has given me a lot more tools I think other people don't have."
Those tools were a big part of the draw to Starkville for a girl from Cave Creek, Arizona, just outside Phoenix. Even without the technology, however, Beuerlein already had her eyes on a school more than 1,000 miles away from her home.
The level of competition in the SEC was always on her mind. She knew she wanted to play for an SEC program, so when head coach Samantha Ricketts gave her a call, it didn't take much more convincing.
"The conversation I had with her didn't feel like business," Beuerlein said. "She was talking to me as a person. It was a person-to-person conversation not a coach-to-athlete and you're coming to play for me conversation. That was one of the reasons I chose the school because the coaches care about you as people and want you to be successful in life after softball."
On top of that, Starkville was going to be a bit of an adventure for Beuerlein, a change of scenery.
"I have always lived in Arizona, so coming out here – it's very green compared to back at home where it's not very green. Being a part of something different, a different environment and different people sounded exciting to me. It sounds weird – being around a lot of trees, a lot of grass just like the literal environment is different. Four years in a different place sounded like an adventure."
So Beuerlein packed up and moved to Starkville. There she met Marron, who hails from a small town in Iowa. They like to joke that Marron is from the middle of nowhere because it's one of the states Beuerlein has never been to and knows very little about.
All those new people in a new environment have been an adjustment, sure. But Beuerlein credits that adjustment with her growth and improvement so far.
"The older girls are really good at making me feel comfortable as a freshman, so that gives me the ability to just go out and play," she said. "They made it easy for me to just go out there and pitch and do what I know how to do because [the coaches] brought me here for a reason. It's a good environment to be successful."
The technology at her disposal helps, too.
"Coming here, I knew Josh had a whole bunch of tools that he uses to really dive into pitching, but I never thought I would be able to use all this cool technology. I didn't even know this stuff existed or people used it for pitchers. I'd never used the Rapsodo much and now I use it every single day. Before I couldn't even tell you what spin efficiency meant, and now, I can tell you everything on the iPad. I've learned a lot in the couple of months I have been here."
There's something else that has paired Beuerlein with Johnson so well, so quickly. The daughter of a firefighter, Beuerlein has had an itch to serve in some way. She's pursuing a degree in criminology and hopes to work for the FBI or CIA.
Ever since she was a kid, she's wanted to solve puzzles. They may be math problems or watching crime shows and trying to solve the mystery first. Either way, she gains confidence when she feels like she's figured it out.
"I definitely feel like I'm a very critical person. I like to break things down, and I can see how in my mind I try to solve things like that and then that translates to softball," she explained. "We can look at a swing and be like, 'Okay, she drops her hands,' so I can come in with a rise ball and know she's going to miss it or pop it up."
For a coach who loves to spend time in the bullpen watching film, breaking down the opponent and crafting a plan of attack, it's a perfect fit.
"Josh is probably one of the smartest people I've ever met," Beuerlein said. "He knows a lot, and he knows what he is talking about. I feel very fortunate to play for him and be coached by him."
At that point, Beuerlein couldn't help it. She and her roommate Josey Marron broke into dancing.
"Just doing the Griddy, you know," she said. "It was crazy to watch them calibrate my body and my skeleton. The technology is so fancy and pretty cool."
It was Beuerlein's first of many trips to the athlete engineering department on campus and the motion capture lab that associate head coach Josh Johnson has utilized for the past two years. And while dancing skeletons are fun, the trip was for far more than a Halloween ball.
The motion capture technology allows Johnson to hone in on specific technical adjustments and then show Mississippi State's pitchers the results of those adjustments.
"It's not someone just looking at me and saying, 'Oh, your hips aren't lined up.' He is going to show me, hook me up to a bunch of different wires, and break it down and show it to me," Beuerlein said. "He has given me a lot more tools I think other people don't have."
Those tools were a big part of the draw to Starkville for a girl from Cave Creek, Arizona, just outside Phoenix. Even without the technology, however, Beuerlein already had her eyes on a school more than 1,000 miles away from her home.
The level of competition in the SEC was always on her mind. She knew she wanted to play for an SEC program, so when head coach Samantha Ricketts gave her a call, it didn't take much more convincing.
"The conversation I had with her didn't feel like business," Beuerlein said. "She was talking to me as a person. It was a person-to-person conversation not a coach-to-athlete and you're coming to play for me conversation. That was one of the reasons I chose the school because the coaches care about you as people and want you to be successful in life after softball."
On top of that, Starkville was going to be a bit of an adventure for Beuerlein, a change of scenery.
"I have always lived in Arizona, so coming out here – it's very green compared to back at home where it's not very green. Being a part of something different, a different environment and different people sounded exciting to me. It sounds weird – being around a lot of trees, a lot of grass just like the literal environment is different. Four years in a different place sounded like an adventure."
So Beuerlein packed up and moved to Starkville. There she met Marron, who hails from a small town in Iowa. They like to joke that Marron is from the middle of nowhere because it's one of the states Beuerlein has never been to and knows very little about.
All those new people in a new environment have been an adjustment, sure. But Beuerlein credits that adjustment with her growth and improvement so far.
"The older girls are really good at making me feel comfortable as a freshman, so that gives me the ability to just go out and play," she said. "They made it easy for me to just go out there and pitch and do what I know how to do because [the coaches] brought me here for a reason. It's a good environment to be successful."
The technology at her disposal helps, too.
"Coming here, I knew Josh had a whole bunch of tools that he uses to really dive into pitching, but I never thought I would be able to use all this cool technology. I didn't even know this stuff existed or people used it for pitchers. I'd never used the Rapsodo much and now I use it every single day. Before I couldn't even tell you what spin efficiency meant, and now, I can tell you everything on the iPad. I've learned a lot in the couple of months I have been here."
There's something else that has paired Beuerlein with Johnson so well, so quickly. The daughter of a firefighter, Beuerlein has had an itch to serve in some way. She's pursuing a degree in criminology and hopes to work for the FBI or CIA.
Ever since she was a kid, she's wanted to solve puzzles. They may be math problems or watching crime shows and trying to solve the mystery first. Either way, she gains confidence when she feels like she's figured it out.
"I definitely feel like I'm a very critical person. I like to break things down, and I can see how in my mind I try to solve things like that and then that translates to softball," she explained. "We can look at a swing and be like, 'Okay, she drops her hands,' so I can come in with a rise ball and know she's going to miss it or pop it up."
For a coach who loves to spend time in the bullpen watching film, breaking down the opponent and crafting a plan of attack, it's a perfect fit.
"Josh is probably one of the smartest people I've ever met," Beuerlein said. "He knows a lot, and he knows what he is talking about. I feel very fortunate to play for him and be coached by him."
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