Until then, the director of the University of Alabama Adapted Athletics, Brent Hardin, has stepped up and has been working with the team.
“Coach Elisha has done a great job organizing the preseason and letting the team know what they’re doing,” Hardin said. “So we’re following her plan, and I think we’ll be right on schedule come Oct. 1.”
With practice from 7 to 9 a.m., the team also has conditioning sessions three times a week and small group practices twice a week to work on fundamentals.
“It’s pretty much the same commitment as any other scholarship athlete on campus,” he said.
With its first game coming up on Oct. 18 hosted by Lakeshore, Hardin is confident the team – now with one new player for a total of 10 women – will be ready to go.
“I’m excited to play again,” said Elissa “Mouse” Robinson, a fifth-year player. “We got to the championship game last year, and we didn’t do exactly how we wanted to, so it’s kind of like giving ourselves a fresh start.”
Although the team came in second place at the Collegiate National Tournament last year, as three-time national champions, Alabama is very well known to have high standards.
“We don’t talk about it; we don’t talk about how we have to get back to the championship game or that we have to win every game,” Hardin said. “We just go about doing things right every day, and we believe that if we do that, things will take care of themselves.”
Junior Savannah Gardner said she is just as fired up as Robinson about the upcoming season and doesn’t bother to feel pressured by previous titles.
“That’s who we are and no matter what people outside of our program think about us, we’re the ones performing,” Gardner said. “We’re the ones working hard every day to accomplish our goal. Even if we’re the worst team in the world – or the best – our motivation to win a national championship or win each game or excel in practice day to day doesn’t change.”
With four home events this season, beginning Nov. 8 against Auburn, Southern Mississippi and Lakeshore at the Student Recreational Center, the team hopes to see a crowd full of crimson cheering them on as they begin their journey back to the Collegiate National Tournament.
“We all suffer together, we all win together, and we all lose together,” Robinson said. “We’re a team.”
