Lady Vols Prepared For Early Season Road Trips

By Rhiannon Potkey, Special to UTSports.com

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Frequent flier miles, hotel living and restaurant-prepared meals are on the schedule for the Tennessee softball team this month.

The Lady Vols are playing tournaments in Arizona, Florida and California while logging 8,188 commercial flight miles before even playing their first home game in early March.

The travel begins this week with No. 12/11 Tennessee participating in the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Arizona. The Lady Vols will face Boise State and No. 23/19 Arizona State on Thursday, Western Michigan and San Jose State on Friday and UC Davis and No. 15/16 Utah on Saturday.

After a quick trip home for classes and practice, Tennessee heads to Florida Feb. 16-18 for the Michele Smith Tournament, where the Lady Vols open against top-ranked and two-time defending national champion Oklahoma.

Then it's back to the West Coast for the Mary Nutter Classic in Cathedral City, California, on Feb. 22-24 against a field that includes No. 19/22 BYU and No. 3 Oregon.

The whirlwind month of lugging bags through airports and studying in hotel rooms sounds exhausting, but that's partly why Tennessee co-head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly created the schedule.

The Lady Vols spent the first month on the road last season and emerged with a 13-2 record following trips to Georgia, New Mexico and California.

"I've said this before, but when we got here, we were very fortunate that our mentor was Pat Summitt, and we got to spend a lot of time with her. And one of the first piece s of advice that she gave us was to play tough," Ralph Weekly said. "A lot of the SEC teams will stay at home and play most of their series at home, but we like the challenge. Our kids are pretty geared up for it and they're in pretty good shape so hopefully fatigue will not be a factor."

The Tennessee softball facility was buzzing after practice on Tuesday afternoon as the team began preparing for the Arizona trip.

It was a bit like Christmas for the players as they were given new Rawlings helmets with distinctive checkerboard patterns on the back, new Rawlings R100 Gold Glove Series backpacks with a Power T on the front and new EvoShield elbow guards.

The team managers double-checked an equipment packing list that ranged from laundry detergent to Sharpies to tees and power strips.

After attending a meeting detailing the travel plans, players scrubbed their bats with a wintergreen-smelling cleaner and envisioned stepping to the plate for the first time in 2018.

"It's very exciting to think about seeing new pitchers and just going head-to-head against another team after scrimmaging against each other for so long," Tennessee sophomore outfielder Tianna Batts said. "We are ready and really excited to start the season."

The travel schedule this month leaves no time for sightseeing, with Tennessee making sure the players maximize their time in the classroom.

The Lady Vols will be leaving for Arizona this week after classes on Wednesday. They play two games a day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before flying back to Knoxville Sunday morning.

Having to immediately adapt to being on the road in unfamiliar territory prepares the team for anything it will encounter in the remaining months.

"Our girls are never bothered by any venue we go into late in the season or for postseason play if we have to go on the road because they feel like they're road warriors after the first month of the year," Karen Weekly said. "It doesn't bother them to travel on Thursday or travel on Wednesday, come home Sunday night, and then hit the 8 a.m. class on Monday morning. They're used to that routine and that grind, so it's important to get them conditioned to any adverse situation that may come their way."

Playing in different states also allows Tennessee to showcase the Lady Vol brand up close to a wider audience.

Many top programs make the Mary Nutter Classic an annual staple on their schedule to continue mining the California recruiting pipeline.

The Lady Vols have three current players on the roster from Southern California, and a few more committed to play for the program in the coming years.

"We definitely recruit Tennessee first and foremost, and we recruit the Southeast region, but we also recruit the West Coast," Karen Weekly said. "So it's important to us that we go out there and play a couple times a year where their families and friends can see them in their own backyard."

Tennessee heads even farther West for a trip to Hawaii March 14-17 before opening SEC play. Along with facing quality competition and differing styles, there is a common theme among the locations of the tournaments - something Karen Weekly happily noted on a 30-degree Monday in Knoxville.

"The temperatures Thursday, Friday, and Saturday where we're playing are 83, 82, and 80," she said. "So where would you rather be?"

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