Praytor Hits Home Run With Community
3/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Written for BAMA Magazine
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? Jordan Praytor has made the most of her time in Tuscaloosa, leading the Crimson Tide softball team to success both on and off the field.
The junior from Vancouver, Wash. proved in 2006 that she is one of the best players in the Southeastern Conference, but it was what she did when she was not sporting the Crimson and White on the diamond that speaks volumes about the kind of person she is.
Praytor was named to the 2006 SEC Good Works Team for her involvement in the community. She spent time during the season volunteering in the pediatric ward at the DCH Regional Medical Center and working with the Gatorade Get 60 program at Holt Elementary School.
"I think that it is really important with all the support that we get from the community with our huge fan base and everything the community does for us, that it is important for us to give back and do good things for them," said Praytor. "Last year I spent quite a bit of time volunteering at a hospital because I am interested in the medical field. Brittany Rogers, Chrissy Owens and myself did the Gatorade Get 60 program at a local elementary school trying to encourage little kids to get involved and be more active and maybe fight obesity a little bit."
Despite having a full class load, weights and conditioning and practice every week, Jordan still found time to go to DCH twice a week to help out.
"I volunteered in the pediatric department and it was really fulfilling," said Praytor. "A lot of the work was mundane like answering phone calls but a lot of the work you got to be one-on-one with little kids and comfort them when they were obviously not in the best shape and weren't feeling really well. That was really rewarding."
Although the phone calls made it seem more like a job, spending time with the kids is what made the experience enjoyable for Jordan. She would do a variety of things with them including reading, playing video games, watching movies or just sitting down and talking about various things.
"We played video games, that was my favorite," Jordan said. "I let them win of course. We read, played video games, just talked about sports or whatever they liked. There was a huge plethora of movies and whatever they wanted they could watch. I just really tried to make them more comfortable and to try and not make them think that they were in a hospital."
As busy as she was with softball and school, it turned out to be a nice break away to go to the hospital and spend time with the kids. It also wasn't just one or two kids that she would help out, it was somebody different every time she went to work.
"It was somebody new every day," Jordan said. "The serious kids were sent to Birmingham, so they weren't in there for long periods of time. There were new kids every time I went. All the different personalities and the different games they wanted to play. The movies they wanted to watch. It was just fun to watch them be happy. It is a chance, not only for them to forget about being at a hospital, but for us it takes the stress off of not worrying about softball, who we are playing this weekend or the test we have coming up. It gives you the chance to relax for maybe an hour in a week or a couple of hours a week just to have fun. Little kids are fun."
One particular girl stuck out in her mind because it made her think about the kind of impact she could have on little kids by being a good role model on the field.
"This one little girl, her hero was Ashley Miles (former Alabama gymnast) and she was a gymnast," said Praytor. "She was very involved in gymnastics and came to all the camps. The way she lit up when she talked about Ashley Miles made me think that maybe some little kids out there might idolize us like she did with gymnastics. It made me think about the positive impact that the athletes on our campus have on little kids."
Praytor would also join her two teammates, Owens and Rogers, in volunteering for the Gatorade Get 60 program. It is a program designed to encourage kids across the country to run, jump, skip, bike and dance their way to the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Student-athletes from across the country have gone into classrooms to inspire children to make physical activity part of their daily routine.
"It is during their P.E. (physical education) time and we just play games with them, basketball, football whatever, just trying to encourage them to stay active," said Praytor. "They report to us how much activity they do outside of class. We just try to encourage them to be more active and hopefully it will continue."
Alabama softball head coach Patrick Murphy said that it is good for his players to put themselves out in the community and that this isn't all that Jordan has done while she was playing for the Tide.
"She gives a lot of her self to the community," said Murphy. "She was chosen for the NCAA leadership conference after her freshman year and didn't get to go because we were in the World Series. That was a huge honor for her as a young athlete. She just has a great way with the community and the people in the community. Just recently the team went up to Capstone Village to eat lunch with the senior citizens and she was terrific."
Praytor and the rest of the Alabama softball team wins the heart of fans each and every game by signing autographs afterwards. They all line up along the fence and sign various paraphernalia such as gloves, t-shirts, program cards and softballs.
"One of the neatest pictures we had last year was after one of the Tennessee wins," said Murphy. "The photographer was way up by the pressbox and took a picture. The players were on one side of the fence and on the other side of the fence was this sea of kids. They were ten deep all the way down the line. It was just the neatest picture. Hopefully everybody went home happy afterwards and got an autograph."
One of the reasons Praytor is such a popular player among the fans is she is one of the top hitters in the SEC. She ranked in the top-10 in the SEC in eight different offensive categories in her sophomore year. She finished with a .415 batting average and nine home runs despite her small stature.
Jordan looks back and says that she wasn't always such a good hitter but has two people to thank for changing her into a collegiate softball player.
"I was in T-ball and I was awful," Jordan said. "My friend who plays at Utah now, we were talking and I was like ??Remember when we were so awful when we were younger.' We were even like 11 years old and we were awful. We were No. 8 and 9 in the batting order and we struck out every time."
It wasn't until she was in sixth grade and she started taking hitting lessons from Dale Ogden, the father of former Oregon State All-American Shawna Feldt. He noticed that she was hitting right-handed and wasn't hitting very well so he decided to try her from the left side of the plate as a slap hitter.
"If I tried to hit right-handed right now it would be a disaster," said Praytor. "That's probably what I looked like back then. He really helped me a lot and my dad helped on the days I didn't hit with him. My dad (Ross Praytor) would hit with me in the garage. I don't know how much time and effort my dad spent. He built a batting cage that was retractable so my mom (Susan Praytor) could still pull her car in. He would always pull the car out everyday. We would put the pitching machine up and he would feed me and pitch to me."
Praytor also learned a lot from one of her high school coach Phil Menacho, including a superstition that she still carries with her today.
"Oh, I'm the most superstitious, ever," Jordan said. "I have to drink my mocha and I have to have a piece of Bazooka gum. My assistant high school coach handed us a piece of Bazooka gum before our games. He'd hand each of us a piece of gum and we'd read the comic. It was lucky and he still sends me boxes of gum, so before every game including my freshmen year to now, I've gotten a piece out of the box and read the comic and eaten it. I think that my high school coaches taught me a lot and it's their way of continuing to be with me when they're not. They write me every week. They're always sending me letters and the gum, and I'm very thankful, and appreciative of that."
The generosity shown by her parents, former coaches and teammates has made Jordan into the kind of person she is today. One that not only excels on the field and in the classroom, but also one that is willing to give her time to help people in the community.
