Halloween is the most exciting part of LSU softball’s preseason.
Each year, everyone from players to coaches dresses up for practice, and that doesn’t mean they just put together normal clothes to make a costume. These Tigers go all out, dressing up in the most outlandish costumes.
Head coach Beth Torina said the tradition has become a good opportunity to take some of the pressure off the preseason. Fall ball can become repetitive, so something as small as a practice in costume is a nice change of pace.
“I think it’s just a cool thing,” Torina said. “We’ve seen a lot of baseball and softball teams around the country do fun practices. And I think the fall for us being the offseason kind of gets to be a grind, so it’s a nice kind of midpoint for us, just something fun, break up the monotony and just enjoy the day with your team.”
Even though the players were dressed up, practice went on as usual.
They started practice by stretching and throwing, then practiced throws to each base before ending the field portion with a one-pitch scrimmage.
Torina divided the team in half to simulate a real game. To save time during practice, the players saw only one strike and had to swing.
This practice might be a mix of fun and development, but it also helps the team gel. Players pulled out all the stops with their costumes, even showing off some of the off-field friendships.
Infielders Kylee Edwards, Ci’ella Pickett and pitcher Cece Cellura dressed as the main characters from “SpongeBob,” which made for a fun dynamic in the scrimmage.
It was a friendly competition, with nothing taken over the top since everyone was in costume.
It wasn’t just the players in on the fun, though; the coaching staff and the graduate assistants were participating as well.
The coaching staff did a group costume: Torina was a sun, assistant coach Sandra Moton was a snowflake and assistant coach Bryce Neal was a storm cloud. Several of the GAs were dressed up as characters from “The Incredibles.”
“It’s just fun having events like this,” Torina said. “Some team building opportunities just get people to smile and laugh and had a beautiful day for it. So it’s always nice to see them smiling and laughing when they’re playing softball.”
