By Stephen Smoot
“It makes it more fun and that’s the important part.”
So says Nataley Hedrick, Pendleton County Wildcat, about the importance of friendship in sports – especially the youth and high school variety.
Hedrick and close friend Allie Vance, both rising seniors, described how they forged bonds of friendship early in life. They relied on each other on and off the field, helping each other through the struggles and challenges that teenagers and athletes often face.
Vance shared that “I don’t think we’ve ever gotten into a fight. We’ve never been mad at each other.”
A 2015 British study of young female athletes shows that friendship serves as a stronger catalyst for bringing girls into sports while also creating an environment that keeps them engaged. Research indicated that almost two thirds of young female athletes aged 18 to 25 “won’t play a sport or exercise without a friend by their side.”
Almost 20 years ago, a series of studies from Maureen Weiss of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Alan Smith of Utah State University showed that children between 10 and 13, boys and girls, emphasize companionship and pleasant play as factors in their best sports friendships
As children reach the 14 to 18 age group, sports based friendships rely more on loyalty, closeness, and things in common. One important difference between boys and girls, in general, lies in how males use conflict as a building block of creating friendships more than girls.
Conflict in this context refers to competitive spirit more than argument. Kevin McHale, Boston Celtic Hall of Fame power forward, remembered a teammate named Terry Duerod. He shared with Boston.com that, “he’d play one on one with you all the time. He’d be hilarious. If he ever beat you, the next few days were miserable. He couldn’t remind you enough. It was just one of those things, one of those shared experiences that may not mean anything to other people, but to us, those are the people and experiences that made us the players and people we were.’’
McHale and fellow Hall of Fame teammate Larry Bird, though close friends, also competed against each other in their own way. In 1985, one game after McHale broke the Celtics scoring record of 54, Bird roared in, scored 60, and took the record for himself.
Friendships in sports that translate to the field can create deep reservoirs of mutual trust and respect, particularly among teammates who must rely on each other. This includes quarterbacks and centers or receivers on the football field, relay teams in track, and pitcher catcher batteries in baseball or softball.
Wildcat softball relies heavily on Vance’s pitching and Hedrick’s catching.
Vance and Hedrick both talked about how friendship helped them to make the transition from playing in their North Fork area communities to Franklin based teams. “I was very nervous at first,” Vance shared, then added “when we first went to practice, we’d only talk to each other for a while. It made it better.”
The President’s Council on Fitness and Sports Research Digest of September 2000 states that “specifically, both female and male youths who reported they had a close friend in sport or physical activities felt better about themselves physically, liked physical activity and sports more, were motivated by challenging activities, and were more physically active.”
The best of sports friendships makes the combination of impact greater than the sum of their individual contributions.
Vance explained that the closeness between the two makes each a better player. “Nataley caught onto stuff I did, like how I pitch. She knew my ways. She can tell everything.” One example lay in how Hedrick would adjust her glove location to help Vance continue to hit the targets she needed. Hedrick said, “When she was pitching, I’d adjust to it.”
Vance added that “she’s not afraid to tell me if I am doing something wrong.”
Also, Hedrick understands how to keep her pitcher’s mindset strong, usually through humor. Vance shared that Hedrick understands that cracking jokes, making her laugh when she is feeling pressure, puts her back in the right frame of mind.
The legacy of sports based friendships can last a lifetime. The famous New York Yankee battery of Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford carried on a legendary friendship long after both men’s playing careers ceased.
Vance and Hedrick agree that decades from now, their friendship will still be strong. “I’ll probably be coaching her kids,” Vance says of Hedrick.
For her part, Hedrick smiled and said, “I’ll probably be doing her hair.”
