Girls’ softball team celebrates after winning nationals in Texas
By Wayne Harrison
Acorn Sports Writer

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn STARS--Left to right: Brittany Reynolds, Marah Krasnow and Jessica Berman helped lead their team.

When Mike Best was a junior at Cal State Northridge, he took a course called "Visualization in Sport."

Recently, Best, while coaching a 10-and-under age softball team, the T.O. Thunder, employed what he learned and helped his players visualize a championship.

The players spent five minutes before games envisioning success on the field, and in the end, they turned imagination into reality.

"Probably about four years ago, I started visualizing with the girls before each game," Best said. "We’d lay down on the grass for five minutes, and each of us would visualize performing well. It was always positive."

When Best was brought aboard to help the T.O. Thunder prior to the tournament that led to the nationals, some were skeptical of the visualization method.

"People were questioning it at first," he said. "’What is this?’ They weren’t quite sure what it was all about. But we began to do it before each game, and one by one, we won them all."

The Thunder won eight straight games in College Station Texas to offset what had been a trying summer to that point, and prove that the team did, indeed, have the ability that people suspected.

"It wasn’t a surprise," said manager Richard Reynolds. "We knew we had the talent and that’s what was so frustrating when we were having troubles on our team. We just couldn’t gel at first, but every girl on the team is the top at her position.

"We decided to step up and said, ‘Lets go!" added Reynolds. "I just felt in my heart that we were going to do something."

Members of the T.O. Thunder reflected on their championship run.

"A lot of the team got parted," said Marah Krasnow, almost 11, who lives in Westlake and attends Willow Elementary School as a fifth grader. "Some people didn’t go to nationals and one of our coaches dropped out and we were not doing so well."

But during the national tournament in Texas, Krasnow hit a home run and teammates Jessica Berman and Marla Mathews hit grand slams, and in the title game vs. Placentia Yorba-Linda, the Thunder won 4-3 in an international tiebreaker.

"I had confidence in us, but not to win the nationals." said Brittany Reynolds, 11, who is a sixth grader at Los Cerritos Middle School. After the win? "I couldn’t speak or say anything because I was so happy. We poured water on our coach." (That happened to be Reynolds’ father, Rich).

Jessica Berman, 11, also a sixth grader at Los Cerritos Middle School described what the players did during their free time in Texas.

"We went to the mall," said Berman. "We went swimming and we went to Texas A&M, and we went to the movies and the arcade. So we did everything as a team, everybody was together."

The team included, Karli Atkins, Torey Best, Cassidy Foster, Brooke Johnson, Nora Sobczak, Rachel Wisuri, Samantha Takeshita and assiatant coach Dave Foster. It was not close-knit until the national tournament said Berman.

"Some people had problems, but at the end, after some people dropped out, it became a team more than it was before."

Marah Krasnow credited the visualization technique of Coach Best. "I think it helped us concentrate better. We would have to be silent, nobody laughing, and just see it happen in our minds."

Best praised the resiliency of the T.O. Thunder.

"If you knew the story about the team," Best said. "It went through ups and downs. There was always talent, but there were some outside forces that really hurt the team. But when Rich (Reynolds) asked me to coach the team, I jumped at it. I knew the potential these girls had."

Said Jessica Berman, "After we won we gave everybody hugs. I didn’t think we were going to win, but we did it, so now I know that anything is possible."