Around the Horn with Deasy Phillips
2/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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When faced with an injury that would have made a lot of people quit, Deasy Phillips didn’t.
Alabama softball’s star base runner injured her shoulder during her junior year of high school. That injury has made it nearly impossible for her to throw a ball.
However, Phillips never considered retiring from the sport she’s played since she was nine years old.
“My mom always told me to find a reason why it happened, or a reason to quit. I thought that if God would’ve wanted me to quit, then I would have broken my leg instead. I love the game, so it didn’t put me out.”
Even though she only plays sparingly in the field now, the Katy, Texas native contributes with her base running ability, as she is called upon often when the Crimson Tide needs speed on the base paths for a stolen base or an important run.
That was her role in her most memorable game, a 2004 contest against Georgia.
“We were tied. I was on first base and (Staci) Ramsey hit a little blooper and Coach Murphy sent me home all the way from first and we won the game.”
When asked about what she wanted her legacy to be after her eligibility is completed, Phillips simply said she wanted to be known for her perseverance.
“I would like for people to think of me as someone who had heart, because I stuck it out. I hear people saying ‘I can’t believe you are still playing, I don’t know how she is doing it.’ But I love the game. I love being around it. I hope when people think of Deasy Phillips they think ‘she had heart.’”
And her fellow seniors?
“I hope that everyone says that we all had spirit and we loved the game and that there was nothing that could bring us down; because if one of us gets down, there are six more of us to pick up the other one. We are like a little army.”
