Dream School Turned Rival
By Sophie Medellin
I was at our high school homecoming football game when I got the call from Stanford’s coach. My heart dropped; we’ve always scheduled a time to call so I’ve never had an unexpected call from her. Not knowing what to expect, I walked away from my friends so that I could be alone.
“Hey Coach! What’s up?”
“Hey Sophie...” After hearing the tone of her voice, I stayed quiet to let her continue speaking. “Sophie... I have some bad news.”
All I remember was all the noise around me shutting off. There was no football game behind me, there wasn’t a screaming crowd in the stands, it was just me and this phone call.
I started taking softball a little more seriously my seventh grade year at age 12 and started paying more attention to the big schools like Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and Arizona. I remember one of my games when my travel ball coach asked if I was interested in Stanford. I for once didn’t know what to say, not because I wasn’t sure about the decision entirely, but because it was Stanford.
Soon after saying yes, I began calling the head softball coach of Stanford, on a weekly basis. She would come to my games and after every tournament we would catch up on each other‘s lives over the phone. Things started getting serious when she told me the requirements I needed to fulfill for Stanford. When I proved to her that I could keep up with all those responsibilities, I verbally committed. It was the most accomplished feeling I’ve ever felt, especially considering I had just finished my freshman year of high school. But, not too long after I found out Stanford appointed a new head coach.
A lot of emotions ran through me and a lot of questions popped in my head. Did I still have my verbal commitment? And would she like me like the previous coach did? However luckily, after she came to a few of my games, I was back on track with the recruitment process.
My grades and my performance on the field met her needs, but the only thing left was an SAT score above 1250. After taking it a few times and still not getting that score things started getting real frustrating. However, with a lot of hard work, another box for going to Stanford was checked off. After seeing my posted score on the website, I remember sitting back and just thinking in my head, “Wow, I met all the requirements for STANFORD. I can’t believe that’s where I’ll be going to college.” The only thing I had left to focus on was keeping up my grades and continuing to work every day in the batting cage and on the field.
Soon enough, my official visit was that upcoming weekend and my signing day at school was a couple weeks after that.
However, that was when I received the phone call at the homecoming football game and heard the news.
“Stanford didn’t accept your application.”
I had no words, nothing to say. I was frozen and didn’t know how to respond.
After a few seconds, with a trembling voice I asked, “Why?”
She had no answer, she too didn’t know why.
I remember that whole entire school year, putting my all into my studies, softball, and the SAT. Anger, confusion, and despair came out in tears. I left the game, and slowly trudged to my car. I have never cried so hard while driving, let alone crying like that. The only thing I distinctly remember when arriving home was calling the Stanford coach and talking about it one last time, but she still had no answer for me. I started getting angry; I thought I at least had the right to know why everything I did wasn’t enough. But, she did tell me that if I ever needed help contacting any other schools, she would be there to help me.
What was I going to do when signing day at school came up? Since my sophomore year, everyone in school always called me “Stanford” and knew me because of that. It was especially hard after that because even though something dreadful just happened, I had to wipe away the tears and hop right back into the recruitment process fast, considering it was my senior year and I wasn’t committed to a school anymore.
There were a lot of schools that I called and called me over the next couple of weeks. After much thought and reconsideration, I was down to three schools: Purdue, UPenn, and Cal Berkeley. I visited all of them and loved them all, but for different things. After many late nights of contemplating and talking to my family, I eventually chose to commit to The University of California Berkeley. That was one of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make especially because one of my best friends was committed to UPenn. Even though I fell in love with the schools for their different atmospheres, education, and sports facilities, I felt like I would feel more at home at Berkeley. There were many factors that played into this: Berkeley had the weather that reminded me of where I grew up and there were endless places to eat on every street. I instantly fell in love with the sport facilities and I’d be lying if I said a part of me didn’t choose Berkeley because it was Stanford’s rival.
My first almost-full year of college at Berkeley is coming to an end and looking back, I couldn’t really imagine myself anywhere else. I can’t imagine not having my new teammates in my life and I definitely couldn’t imagine not being part of such a great organization with a great coaching staff.
Hard times are a constant in life, but they are only temporary. My first softball season at Cal was an example of this. As excited as I was to finally to get going and have the opportunity to play against Stanford, several factors hindered me from pursuing the season I hoped for: I hurt my shoulder during our first game, my grandma lost her battle with cancer shortly after, and the global pandemic took away the rest of an experience my team and I will never get back. However, I am motivated more than ever to be the best in the upcoming year. I want to be known for coming back strong after a difficult freshman year.
There’s some days where I still think about the whole Stanford situation and get a little upset, but it’s the special moments that happen at school and on the field that help me understand why it happened. If I learned anything from my last high school year experience, it’s that nothing is ever final until it is. I do believe that everything truly happens for a reason, and it took me a while to understand that reason, but I’m so happy where I am, the people that support me, but most importantly, the experiences that have brought me to be me. Of course there will most definitely still be obstacles in the way and challenges that I’ll have to face, but I’m ready for anything pitched at me, whether it be life or a yellow softball.