The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick Lauren Rashford '10 dons her basketball and softball gear. She became Brandeis' latest two-sport athlete this spring.

When the women's basketball team drove back to Brandeis from a second-round NCAA Tournament loss in Union, N.J., most of the Judges had varsity athletics in their rearview mirror. But that wasn't the case for reserve point guard Lauren Rashford '10, who hopped on a plane the next night to Alamonte Springs, Fla. for the start of the softball season.

"It was obviously very hard to lose because we all wanted to go really far in basketball, … but then I knew I had to leave the next day to fly out to Florida, so it was a crazy transition," Rashford said.

Playing a second varsity sport began as a joke for Rashford. During a class last fall, she quipped with her friend, shortstop Chelsea Korp '10, about the possibility of joining the softball team in addition to her basketball duties.

But what started as playful banter became a reality when Rashford approached softball coach Jessica Johnson last fall about joining the softball team. Now, the guard who led all Brandeis bench players in steals last winter will be looking to tally steals of another kind-bases-as a pinch runner on the softball team this spring.

"The more we talked about it, the more I was like, 'You know what? Actually, I would love to play two sports,'" Rashford said. "The more I talked to [Korp], the more she was saying that they could use me as a pinch runner, and I thought it would be fun and interesting to try something new."

Two-sport athletes were more common in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but women's basketball coach Carol Simon said Rashford is the right person to turn the trick.

"[Rashford is] just a great athlete," women's basketball coach Carol Simon said. "A kid like that can really go into any role, I think, on any team. She's that versatile that she can make that big of an adjustment going from basketball to softball."

After discussing membership on two sports teams with Johnson, Rashford spoke to women's basketball coach Carol Simon. Simon had experience coaching multisport athletes, having been both the head basketball coach and assistant softball coach during her first six years at Brandeis, and she approved Rashford's decision.

Continued...

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