With summer comes softball and it’s time to find the kind of summer quotes that will inspire your softball team as they sweat toward the league championship. Big athletic quotes from other sports giants lend themselves well to the sport of softball.
When it comes to defining champions, let’s start with these memorable quotes:
“I am a member of a team, and I trust the team, I surrender it and I sacrifice myself for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” – Mia Hamm, women’s soccer Olympic gold medalist team
And while the nobility of teamwork is essential, there comes a day when you have to take your team back after a particularly crushing loss. That’s where this quote from Vince Lombardi comes into play:
True glory is falling to your knees and then coming back. That is the true glory. That is the gist of it.
As one of the most successful coaches in history, he was a man who understood what truly makes champion athletes and champion teams.
Interestingly, Ralph Waldo Emerson, probably the person least concerned with summer athletics, has a quote that cuts short on many softball players’ experience:
“Let’s do what we can, summer will have its flies.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
This summer date rings so true because a spring filled with practice and time in the batting cage still can’t top the occasional pop-fly ball. Although in this case its more literal meaning, that summer, regardless of how beautiful it is, comes with a more annoying side effect rather than the actual flying balls of summer softball league.
Likewise, William Blake is an English poet who never saw a baseball field, let alone a softball field. Despite this, his general observations about the summer are worth sharing with any athletic team.
“How sweet I traveled from field to field, and tasted all the pride of summer.”
Because it’s the pride of summer that all athletes chase, looking for that glory, that moment in the sun that makes one feel like a true champion.
Finally, as we move into the summer sports season, never forget Billy Jean King’s athletic quote about champions:
“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”
Never fear winning, that’s what summer is all about. So put on your baseball shorts, sling your shoes over your shoulder, and enjoy a summer of grass, sun, and the thrill of victory.