Q & A With Melissa Massey
What are your least favorite drills in softball practice?"Probably any of the hitting drills. Hitting is hard."
What was your first sports experience?
"I was in gymnastics and I told my dad one-day I wanted to play softball. We had tryouts and they told me to go to centerfield and I had to ask where that was. My dad had to stand out there with me, the very first day."
What's the best thing about living on a farm?
"I would have to say all the animals. I love animals and I get to have a lot of them."
What is your favorite animal on your farm?
"My dog Girdle."
You are building a softball team from scratch and you can either an All-American hitter or pitcher, but not both. Which do you choose and why?
"I would pick an All-American hitter. You can have an awesome pitcher, but you have to have someone that can score runs."
Is it exciting to have your own Q&A session on the site and will you tell everyone about it?
"No, I'm not going to tell everybody. It's kind of neat, but my whole family will have everybody on it. It's scary knowing that everybody will know what I'm saying."
Do you have a softball ritual that you do before you perform?
"No, you just go do it."
Do you have any softball role models?
"Yeah, my first coach that got me started, Coach Mack. He's coached everyone in Lincoln County."
What is your most embarrassing moment on the field?
"That would have to be last year. Opening game, the very first pitch I threw went behind me."
Do you have any bad habits that you would like to break or admit to?
"I have a bad habit of not studying. I just do enough to get by and that's a bad habit. That's just schoolwork, not softball. You have to give it your all in softball."
What is your favorite part of the day?
"Lunch time, because I get to take a nap afterwards."
What puts you in a good mood?
"Winning."
Where is your favorite place to play softball?
"I would say here at home. It?s the level of comfort playing on your own field."
If you could go to any US city, where would it be and why?
"I would probably go home (Fayetteville, Tenn.). That's my favorite place."
What is favorite class?
"Computer class, because it is the easiest."
What is your favorite softball cheer?
"I'm one of the girls that don't cheer. I never have been. Cheerleading is for cheerleaders. I love everyone when they do it to pick everyone up, but I just don't cheer. You have to have some kind of rhythm to do it and I have none."
What is your favorite TV show?
"Mama's Family"
Do you have any family traditions?
"On Christmas we have to go to our grandmothers house. If you don't, then everyone is in shock and you are disowned for a while. We have to spend the night. Even though my dad is forty years old, Santa still brings him a stocking."
What is the best part of road trips?
"Time off from school. You know you are playing ball when you should be in class. I would much rather be playing ball."
What is the best part about being a MSU athlete?
"The whole experience. I would imagine just being a student and just coming to class would be different. When you are an athlete you know just about everybody. If I weren't, I probably wouldn?t know anybody."
If you could do anything professionally, what would it be?
"Play softball and farm. That's what I want to do."
Do you have any fears or phobias?
"Fear of suffocating. When my brother and I were younger, we would roll each other up in a towel and sit on it to see who could under it the longest. I would get really freaked out and he wouldn't let me up."