Finality starting to set in for WNC softball

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles on Western Nevada College intercollegiate athletics, which are being discontinued after the 2016 season.

The seventh inning of the final game of a four-game series between the Western Nevada College and Snow College softball teams seemed like nothing out of the ordinary for the Wildcats this season.

WNC was battling in another close game as it had done so many times during the season and the players were there usual selves, having fun in the dugout, trying to rally their teammates onto victory.

While the Wildcats fell just short in a 3-2 loss, it still was a successful series for WNC in which it took the first three games. But after the final game was played at Pete Livermore Sports Complex, the finality began to set in.

Sure, WNC still has next weekend’s final regular season series at College of Southern Nevada and the regional tournament, but the Wildcats played their final home game ever for the program Saturday as the school’s intercollegiate athletic programs are going to be discontinued after the 2016 season.

“The sophomore day is always a difficult day,” said WNC coach Leah Wentworth about her sophomores being honored between the first and second games of the doubleheader. But this sophomore day was the last one ever for the program.

“It just sucks that the program is ending,” sophomore Kristina George said. “It just sucks that more players aren’t going to have the same opportunity.”

Wentworth admitted she started becoming more emotional about the finality of it all after Saturday’s final home game.

“Enjoy every moment you’ve got together,” Wentworth told her team after the game. “Every game is getting closer to the end.”

The WNC coach fought back tears as she talked about the looming end of the program.

“This was just overwhelming,” said Wentworth, who added emotions were also surely going to flow at Saturday night’s team banquet at the Gold Dust West in Carson City.

“The emotions I’ve been pushing aside have come to the surface. It’s becoming real that it’s coming to an end.”

Another sophomore, Briauna Carter, also fought back tears as she talked about what the program has meant to her. Carter said many times in college, “the game is just not fun anymore.”

But at WNC, that’s not the case, said Carter, who’s going on to play for Hawaii-Hilo.

“Fun, so much fun,” said Carter about her time at WNC. “The coaches and the players, we’re just so close. We’re just a family.”

And Carter had her own memorable moment when she hit a game-winning two-run home run to give the Wildcats an 8-7 win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

“The excitement on all the girls’ faces is what I’m going to remember the most,” she said.

“They just made it so much more fun and enjoyable,” added Carter about her teammates. ‘They just made me cherish, enjoy the game.”

But it wasn’t all fun and games.

“Academic wise, the last two years have been the best grades I have had in my entire life,” Carter said.

George also talked about how the program helped her.

“It gave me the confidence of a lifetime,” she said. “I couldn’t have gone anywhere else and been any happier. It’s taught me how to make friendships that last a lifetime.”

While Wentworth said her “heart breaks” because the program won’t be there any more for Carson City, she added she’s been “so blessed” to have the opportunity she’s had. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said.

As she fought back tears, Wentworth remembered the Dr. Seuss quote: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”