W!

1AC (Coach Stake) started a tradition of writing a "W" on her wrist and the wrists of any player, coach, or staff member who wanted to be reminded of our goal... to Win! The W's have gotten quite contagious on our wrists and are also reflected in the effort and intensity our team is playing with. W tally to date: 11. GO ARMY!

WPASG

If you've been reading my posts, I'm sure you have noticed that I've been using a good amount of acronyms. To help fill you in on what I'm saying and everything else they say at West Point, check out this WPASG one of my players made! It all started a few weeks ago when I went to ask someone about my paycheck. The woman who I was talking to used so many acronyms and terms that I had never heard that I left her office completely annoyed and unsure of the answer to my question. In anger I posted to Twitter saying "Why does EVERYONE at west point have to speak using as many acronyms as possible? IMMFS." One of my players, Jennae, saw the post and replied saying "Haha, because we like having full blown conversations that less than 1% of the nation can understand. It makes us feel special." So I replied asking if I could at least get a guide on their special language. Three drafts later, here is the guide! =)

WPASG

IOCT

One of the grad requirements for cadets here is to pass the IOCT (Indoor Obstacle Course Test) during their Cow (Junior) year. For regular people like myself, the IOCT looks like a giant playground! There are 10 obstacles and then a 2.5 lap run to finish. But for some cadets, it is a nightmare. One of our cow's (Angela Deger AKA Degs) has been struggling with it for a few months and still hadn't passed the test. When Kate and I found out she was going to practice the course, we excitedly volunteered to come play with her. Degs laughed at our excitment but agreed to let us come. She walked us through each segment of the course, teaching us the proper way to complete each one. The one I had the most trouble with was the shelf. Degs was SO funny trrying to will me up the shelf with her encouraging words. After at least 30 unsuccessful tries, I finally understood the technique and mounted the shelf successfully! Two days later, Degs passed her IOCT shaving almost a minute off her previous time! Now Kate and I want to practice so we can pass it too =) The shelf:

Busch Gardens

For our day off in Florida, Kate, Captain Parrish and myself took our orphan Jennae to Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens is the first amusement park I had ever been too with rides and animals! It wasn't too crowded, which was nice and we had a great time going on roller coasters and checking out the animal exhibits. CPT Parrish dared Kate and I to get our faces painted, so we did. It was quite an experience getting stared at by complete strangers and not remembering why they were staring. But if I saw someone my age with their face painted like a bunny, I'd probably stare too.

ACBC & Slingshot

When we are on the road, 1AC and I are in charge of doing bed checks every night. Usually we just make sure they are all in their rooms and give them information about what time breakfast is, what uniform we're wearing, etc. But since we are both big kids, we like to make some fun out of it. While at George Washington, it was one of our players' birthday so we made a BCC (bed check challenge) to create birthday cards for us to deliver to Rachael. The girls had fun with it and got pretty creative; one room even made a present to go along with their poem.

Since we knew we'd be doing bed checks every night in Florida, we decided that we should have matching bed check outfits. So every night we wore captain america t-shirts (which we've adopted as our AC symbol), and then on St. Patrick's day we went all out. Most of the girls were speechless, but we were pretty proud of our outfits which were both festive and representative of Army (camo tights, duh). And their faces were priceless.

Another fun thing we did in Florida was get slung 365 feet into the air! Right near our hotel was a small carnival-ish park with a human sling shot. So Kate and I decided we were going to check it out one night after bed checks. We watched 3 times and decided we were definitely going to come back to do it the next night. We conviced our staff buddies, CPT Parrish and AT Danielle to go with us. What a great idea, it was SO much fun! So a few days later we went back to take one of our players that wanted to go, and then ended up going again that night to take 4 of them. Rachael, Tiff and Re were pumped, and Jennae came along to watch. As Rachael and Re were getting ready to ride, Tiff miraculously talked Jennae (who is afraid of heights) to ride with her. It was hilarious hearing Jennae's comments during their ride, as she said she'd rather jump out of a plane 8 more times than do that again.

Rachael and Re

Jennae and Tiff

Rebel Games

For our Spring Break trip, we travelled to Kissimmee, FL to play in the Rebel Games tournament. While there we played 8 game (4 double headers), and came out 5-3. W's over: FDU, Cornell, Marist, St. Peters & Rider. It was a great week of sun, softball and some fun I love my job!

WACDFF

1AC and I went to lunch in the mess hall one day, and our cadets told us about some of the stuff they make plebes do during beast. One thing we found amusing was that they challenge plebes to open their milk cartons without using their hands. Our senior captain, Jennae Tomlinson, went on to show us how it's done... by placing her milk carton over a cup and stabbing it with knife. So later that night, we decided we would open milk cartons without using our hands... like our cadets taught us. Enjoy =)

Skiing

There's a ski hill here that I have been begging to go snowboarding at since I got here. Finally, Kate and I went on a day off but apparently so did everyone else and all of the snowboards were rented. So instead we decided we were going to ski. Kate had never ski'd before, and the last time I went I was probably about 8 years old. I remembered the basics so we took off, starting on the bunny hill. (so small that you don't even ride a lift, you hold onto a tow that takes you up the hill). After successfully, making it up and down the hill several time, we decided to ride the lift up the big hill. We started off slowly, but Kate took off and I was still working on my turns. I was doing pretty well and heading quickly down the hill when our friends Blake and Nick yelled to me from the lift, "Go Stacy!" I yelled back, "I sucks!" and face planted within seconds. Not the same as when I was 8, unfortunately at the age and size of 24, I fell much harder. I made it down the rest of the way safely and shared my story with Kate since she missed it. Not long after, we were heading down the hill a second time and I was flying! This time my skiis got caught when I was trying to turn and just after I yelled to Kate "I'm going to fall," I ate it so hard that both my skiis flew off! Haha, it was pretty awesome. But it hurt enough that I walked the rest of the way down the hill, carrying my skiis. The good news is, the view was awesome!

This is where I live. No big deal.

Exploring. Resulted in this sweet panorama!

Sledding!!

Went sledding with Kate and Sarah and just wanted to share the picture above because it's probably the best sledding picture ever! Notice the air Sarah is getting and that her feet are up higher than her head. It was awesome! She also did a back flip, which I happened to catch on video =)

Stacy Birk Rounds Out Softball Staff - GoArmySports.com—The Official Web site of Army Athletics: http://bit.ly/boNbhP :)

V-day Relays

Tournament cancellation and snow calls for some Valentines Day fun! Not only did the entire coaching staff dress in pink & red, we even had flowers, candy and cards for the girls. Before starting practice, we divided the team into four groups to compete in three different games including 52 ball pick-up, A-man Valentine relay, and Dizzy bat. I took some video, it was quite entertaining! 52 ball pick-up:

FLOTG

It's spring time, and you know what that means... it's time for softball! We kick off our season this weekend at Georgia State with 4 games. Check out the Army Softball website for our entire spring schedule. I have not decided yet if I will start a blog, but I have created an Army Softball Facebook page, so be a fan to keep up with our season! And I also created a twitter... follow Army Softball! =) Coaching is definitely different than playing, but the game day excitement and my motivation is just the same. As always, for love of the game.

Best House Ever

When I arrived here I did not have a place to live, so I was staying with the softball AI (athletic intern,) Sarah. As of right now, only head coaches live on post, and everyone else lives in either Highland Falls or other towns nearby. Kate had mentioned to me that her lease to her 1 bedroom apartment was monthly and that if we could find a nice 2 bedroom, she'd move. So we looked on craigslist and found an add for a house for rent. We drove by to see what it looked like and ended up calling the landlord, Bill, while we were there. He said he could meet us in 30 minutes to show us the house. Within seconds of walking into the house I knew it was perfect! Bill told us that the house is only 2 years old and that he re-built the entire thing. It's two stories plus an attic with hardwoord floors downstairs, dishwasher, coin laundry in the basement, heat and AC, a million light switches and pretty much perfect. After showing us around, Bill mentioned that another renter had check out the house and was bringing his wife the next day to show her. We told him we'd get back to him and Kate asked me what I thought. I asked her if we'd find anything else like it in Highland Falls. She said no and I said "I want it!" Bill returned 10 minutes later with our keys and we signed the lease the following day. Check out our new house, Horton:

West Point, Hooah!

There are so many things about West Point that are unique to any other college in the country but for now, here are a few:

They have their own language, using so many acronyms that you need a guide just to follow along.

It's totally normal for people to run around with rifles in their hands.

Cadets run everywhere, no matter what the weather is, and they don't stop for anyone.

Our indoor practice facility has a helicopter simulation!

Moving

After accepting the job at Army, I spent a few days packing up and saying goodbye to my Mattoon family. The Lakers sent me off with "Good luck, hooah!" The next step was packing up my storage unit in Normal. After 4 days, about 8 hours of work and lots of help from Memer, I packed my entire life into 8 large moving boxes! (before and after pic above) It's weird to think that I'm not going back to Normal... other than to visit of course. I've spent a good amount of the past 7 years of my life there; getting two college degrees, playing softball, and forming the best friendships of my life. Goodbye Normal, hello "real life."

Interviews

Life is odd. As I was gearing up for my first spring season as a collegiate coach at Lake Land College I was simultaneously approached with two completely different job opportunities. (1) Assistant Softball Coach for West Point, and (2) Assistant Product Manager for Longstreth. Over the course of a few weeks I applied, interviewed, and visited for both positions. Both were amazing opportunities and I was having a really hard time making up my mind. The Longstreth job involved marketing for softball equipment sales. They were intrigued by my background in graphic communications and project management, as well as my knowledge of the sport. I loved everything about the company and accepting the job would mean moving to Pennsylvania. The West Point job intrigued me in it's uniqueness to any other coaching job in the country. First year head coach, Michelle DePolo, struck me as an individual with a passion for the game similar to my own. And Assistant Coach, Kate Stake, whom I played with in college at Illinois State gave me an insight on the program and West Point as a whole when I previously came to visit in November. I left the interview not knowing what my decision was going to be. I weighed my options and every time I kept saying to myself "but it's West Point!" After playing phone tag with Longstreth to see if they were even going to offer me the job, I gave up and called Coach DePolo to gladly accepted her offer to come coach at West Point.

Florida

After five beautiful weeks at home, I flew back to Illinois and immediately embarked on a road trip to Florida for a softball tournament. I went to the tournament to scout for Lake Land with Head Coach, Nic Nelson, as well as to help coach one of Nic's travel ball teams. The 19 hour drive straight there was far from enjoyable, but we made it and I drove the last leg like a champ! After checking into the hotel, we took a nap and then embarked on road trip #2 down to Key West. Myself, Nic, Katie, and Kelsey (shown in the picture above) spent a few hours in Key West walking around, eating dinner, watching the sunset at Mallory Square and shopping.

The tournament was great and Nic's teams played well! Other fun stuff I got to do: hold a gator, feed an egret, and ride on an air boat!

Christmas '09

This year's Christmas brought the usual fambam time and some beautiful Huntington Beach weather! People often ask how I can possibly have Christmas without snow, but to me that's all I know. Even though I have spent the past 7 winters in Illinois and New York, the only way I know how to celebrate Christmas day is with sun and 70 degree weather. And it doesn't bother me one bit! So when provoked by a mid-westerner flaunting their Christmas snow, I snapped this picture in reply. Suckas!

NFCA Convention

My picture does not exactly depict the awesomeness of the convention! But since I ony took pictures during the social events, I thought I'd use one I took with my buddies. (Margo, Mac and Tory). Every year the NFCA hosts a convention, inviting all of it's 500+ members to highlight the talented and most successful mentors in our sport. The convention is a wonderful networking tool, as coaches from every collegiate program in the country attend. There are events designed for mingling, there's an extensive showroom of exhibitors and of course sessions where speakers share their knowledge on different aspects of the game. The convention is a week long event with pre and post seminars and courses.

This year's theme was "For the Love of the Game," which (in case you didn't know) is my mantra. So after receiving the convention brochure, I was pretty excited to see what the NFCA had in store. I arrived in Nashville on Wednesday and did a few events for the NPF, before the regular courses began. I attended many sessions, including: "Building a Championship Program," "Drills, Drills, Drills," "Slapping and the Short Game," "The Talent Code" "The Playground Approach," "For the Love of the Game Discussion," and "Playing Through the Ball." I benefitted from several of the sessions, but my favorite was Sue Enquist's "The Assistant Coaching Journey." Other than Sue, the speaker who stood out the most to me was Erica Beach "Getting the Most from your Pre-season Pitching Workouts." With pitching being my dominant positions as an athlete, it was ironic to me that I learned the most from this session. But I found it very interesting to see how someone else may tweak a drill or put a differnt spin on it.

I also really enjoyed the Hall of Fame banquet. Three coaches were inducted including Frank Cheek (Humboldt State University), Bill Edwards (Hofstra University) and Diane Ninemire (University of California - Berkley). Videos were shown for each inductee, highlighting both the coach, the program, pictures, interviews of former players, traditions, awards, etc. Overall it was a great experience and I cannot wait to attend the 2010 convention in San Diego to see my college coach, Melinda Fischer, inducted into the Hall of Fame!

Birky Turkey Trot

My sisters and I had planned on running in the 5K Turkey Trot this Thanksgiving but it didn't work out, so we ended up deciding to have our own. Coach Jamie invited everyone in the family to participate (walk, jog or bike) in our 6 mile trip to the pier and back. Now although I have not ran that far in years, I decided to run alongside the sisters while Dad and Paul biked. The first half wasn't too bad, but at some point during the 4th or 5th mile my hip decided it didn't want to participate. (It was then I remembered why I hadn't ran that far in so long). So for the rest of the trot I continued on with pure stubbornness and a will to finish. We all completed the Birky Turkey Trot and decided that we had earned our Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe I'll train for it next year!

Home

This year, for the first time since I left for college, I got to come home before Thanksgiving and I get to stay through Christmas! I can't even tell you how much I am enjoying this... my days have consisted of relaxing at home, working out, sleeping and watching tv. Quite a change from my usual schedule in Mattoon! I also really enjoy spending time with my family... playing slowpitch, shopping with Mama, walking the dogs with Dad, sunset bike rides to the beach, heeling at target with Kelly and making cookies with Jame! I may not get to come here often but I really do love Huntington Beach. People always ask me when I am going to move home. I don't have an answer for that right now, but I know that I am happy with the path I am on and if California is in my future, I won't be mad about it. =)

Leadership at West Point

Below is a post I wrote for the Lake Land blog about my trip to West Point to learn about leadership.

I was very fortunate that Coach Nelson was able to set up my first visit to the United States Military Academy, better known to most people as West Point. My trip to West Point was not just to see the historic and beautiful campus, but to learn more about leadership. And what better place to go than an academy designed to train and prepare cadets for leadership positions in our nation's army. The mission states: "to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army." Over the course of 47 months, cadets attend classes and earn a degree just like any other college student, but at West Point they also go through military and physical development programs. Each of these three areas: military, academic and physical affect a Cadet's rank during their 47 months. Their rank affects their branch as well as their post upon graduating West Point. Therefore, being a Corps Squad athlete is a lot different than being an athlete here at Lake Land College, or any other college for that matter. I spent one afternoon with the Cadets, going to class, back to the barracks, to formation and to lunch. I asked them some questions and I found it interesting that to them, softball isn't exactly a top priority. Not that they don't care about it, but that in a way it takes away from all of their requirements with the military, academic and physical programs. In one of my meetings with Dr. Hennelly from the Behavioral Science and Leadership department, he described it well saying that at any other university, practice is the hardest part of your day, but at West Point practice is the nicest part of your day. Like the Cadets told me, he also said that Corps Squad athletics take away from something else. During my visit I spent time with many people including: Michelle DePolo (Head Softball Coach), Kate Stake (Assistant Softball Coach), Second Lieutenant Sarah Yates, Cadet Jennifer Parsons, Cadet Jennae Tomlinson, Command Sergeant Major Mahoney, Joe Sottolano (Head Baseball Coach), Dr. Hennelly(Head of the Management and Leadership programs in the Behavioral Science and Leadership department), Lieutenant Colonel McElrath, and Jeff Coleman from CEP (Center For Enhanced Performance). My time with each of them was beneficial, as they all shared with me their take on leadership from their perspective.

Click here to read the rest.

Jackie's Wedding

Jackie Williams (now Douglas) was a fellow 2007 graduate and softball teammate at Illinois State. Because Lake Land was scheduled to play, I was not going to be able to attend her wedding but we ended up getting cancelled. I was so excited to see Jacks on her big day! The ceremony was short and sweet and we headed to the reception. I got to see several old teammates and sit with them during dinner. I had a lot of fun catching up with everyone but headed back to Mattoon pretty early since we had practice the next morning. I'm really glad it worked out and I got to share in the celebration of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas! Congratulations Jackie :)

Skils Videos

I started making skills videos for high school athletes to make some extra money. The first time I did it, it took a long time to shoot, edit and publish the video. After I got the hang of it, it got easier but it's still a very time consuming task. I started another blog to post the videos on so the athletes would have their very own page to email out to college coaches. Here they are if you'd like to see them: http://www.softballskillsvideos.blogspot.com

Alumni Game '09

I'm starting to feel old, as I've just completed my 3rd Illinois State Softball Alumni game. It's to the point that I only know a few athletes on the team and I couldn't name any of the Freshmen. I think the little birds beat us, but honestly I don't even remember. Maybe it's that old age again, haha. Really though, I just remember how great it felt to be on the mound despite the fact that I hadn't thrown in weeks. It still feels completely natural and I loved every second of it! Now just because it's an alumni game, don't think it isn't competitive. I can guarantee you the team was given the annual "these are the most talented athletes, All-Americans, etc. and you better respect that but you've been practicing and they haven't so we better win." Or something close to that. There's also a trophy that stays with the winning team throughout the year, a gnome. And you better believe that all of the alumni, regardless of age, are diving, sliding and giving it their all. Just like Melinda says, we play hard and we play with heart.

Fall Season

After a few weeks of practice, it's time to get out of the bullpen and kick off our Fall season! We've got some GREAT teams on our schedule including Illinois, Arkansas, Illinois State, Eastern Illinois and Depaul to name a few. Check out the blog I started for Lake Land to read posts on our season and see what the Lakers are up to! The Flying V: http://www.lakelandsoftball.blogspot.com

Hi, I'm Coach Birk

After the week of fun in NYC, I flew back to Illinois and headed down to Mattoon to start my new job as the Lake Land College Assistant Softball Coach. I arrived on a Sunday for team conditioning and Sunday Night Supper. As I met the players, I introduced myself saying "Hi, I'm Coach Birk." It was weird calling myself that but it made me smile to think I get to coach softball, as a job. Not a high paying job... but still a job! What a concept.

Head Coach, Nic Nelson approached me last May and asked if I'd be interested in being his assistant at Lake Land. At the time I wasn't sure but over the summer I made my decision and here I am! I moved in with a family that Nic knows well, the Dows. Mike, Peggy, Kambri, and Hannah. Kambri is married and lives in Mattoon with her husband and 2 children. Hannah is a Junior and is playing college softball at Appalachian State, so I am staying in her bedroom. The Dow's were very welcoming, they even helped me move my stuff in :)

I spent the first week getting to know my players, the pitchers and catchers especially. I am the assistant but my primary focus is the pitching staff. I am lucky that I have FOUR talented pitchers and I'm really enjoying putting them through workouts. After my first practice with Lake Land, it was clear that these girls are intense athletes. In fact, I told Nic that his practice was the most intense practice I have ever seen. Lake Land may be a junior college, but these athletes and this team is run exactly like a division one program. My energy at practice fit right in with the players' and Nic's.

My days are pretty much the same: office, practice, workouts, study table, then head home and crash around 11pm. Because coaching is not a huge help to my income, I have been working several other random jobs. I've spent a little time in the print shop at Lake Land and I started waitressing at Buffalo Wild Wings. I even spent two weeks helping out the financial aid office, aka sitting at a desk and answering the phone. I'm extremely busy but I am still enjoying myself.

Birk Week Extravaganza

The Birk women met up in New York City for a week of fun! (Dad couldn't get vacation time). Mom and I arrived first and Jamie a few days later. We all managed to squeeze into Kelly's ridiculously tiny apartment in the east village. The weeks' events included: shopping, The Lion King, The Waldorf, a sunset cruise, great food and lots of exploring!

My mom has always wanted to see the Lion King on Broadway so we finally did. It was an amazing show, that's for sure. Sorry I don't have any pictures, but it's really something you need to see for yourself. After the show, Mama treated us all to one night at The Waldorf. Our suite was huge and Kelly and I were way too excited about the robes. The next day we walked around downtown NYC and took a sunset cruise. We got to see lady liberty at the prettiest time of the day.

Throughout the week, we did lots of shopping but Macys was definitely our playground. Dad is probably happy he wasn't there, I think we spent an entire afternoon at Macys. I remember having coffee and a meal! Lol. We ate at some great resturants but my favorite stop was Milk and Cookies Bakery. It's this tiny little cookie shop in the east village and it was actually our dinner one night :) Overall, it was a great vacation and the first I can remember in a LONG time that didn't include softball.