AUBURN, Ala. – When Auburn's Mickey Dean coached the Chicago Bandits in professional softball, practice started at 3 p.m.
Except for the team's star player, Jennie Finch, who asked Dean to meet her each morning at 9 to work on fielding, pitching and hitting. By the time the session ended, it was 1 p.m., just enough time for a lunch break before the team practice.
"It opened my eyes to what the next level is all about, as a player," said Dean, who coached Finch for five seasons in Chicago.
Finch, a national champion at Arizona in 2001 and Olympic gold medalist in 2004, spoke Sunday at the Auburn Softball On Deck Club's preseason banquet.
"It's always such a thrill to be around collegiate athletics and to see the powerhouses across the country now," Finch after her talk. "Mickey and I have a longstanding relationship from the Bandits and so when he asked, I said, 'Let's do this, I would love to. I'll be honored to come and speak for your team.'"
Finch recounted her softball story, how she began playing at age 5 and started pitching at 8, attributing her competitiveness to playing against her two older brothers in Southern California.
She shared how a loss at arch-rival Arizona State her sophomore year, a defeat that ended a long Arizona winning streak against the Sun Devils, served as a defining moment.
"Even at your lowest of lows, the next pitch, the next game, the next day, can be the beginning of your highest of highs," she said.
Finch would go on to win her next 60 games, including the Women's College World Series her junior season.
"I learned the worst thing you can do is focus on yourself when you're struggling," she said. "This is a hard, hard sport. As a hitter, you're going to fail more than you're going to succeed. We have to deal with failure.
"We can't get too low, we can't get too high. Keep showing up, keep putting in the work, keep plugging away. Good things are going to happen. If you want something, you've got to turn that frustration into determination. That's your fuel to your fire.
"Our most powerful tool is between our ears. And who is in control of our most powerful tool? We are."
A mother of three, Finch said she passes on to her children the same advice her dad gave her.
"You be the best that YOU can be," she said. "You have gifts, you have strengths, you were meant to be you.
"Especially with young ladies, with social media, you're comparing yourselves constantly and that is a thief of joy, instead of looking at what you do have."
When Finch was 15, her parents took her to see the USA softball team on its pre-Olympics tour before it won gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the first time softball was included in Olympic Games.
"I remember walking out of that ballpark saying, 'Mom and dad, that's what I want to do,'" Finch recalled. "'I would love to play USA softball.'"
Eight years later, Finch teamed up with four holdovers from the 1996 team to win gold in Athens in 2004.
"Everybody sees all of the good things," she said. "The glory, the trophies, the medals, but they don't see the blood, the sweat, the tears.
"When nobody's watching, that's when it truly matters, because deep down, you know whether you gave it your all.
"We're going to win some. We're going to lose some, but if you can look yourself in the mirror at night and say, 'I gave everything I had,' then you're a winner, no matter the outcome.
"That's the championship mindset. Being prepared, being ready every single day, and making it the best you can. Don't plateau. Don't cruise. Don't let any day go to waste. We're not guaranteed tomorrow so we better make today great."
Good luck @auburnsoftball -it was an honor to help you kick off your season! Make it special! https://t.co/UFdnI3kLmq
— Jennie Finch (@JennieFinch) January 13, 2019
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer