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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 27, Digital 4

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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4 82 De Oliveira said, because she thought it defined what a Boilermaker is. De Oliveira had spent four seasons previously on Purdue's staff under Kim Maher, and she figured out that much. She always viewed the program as having an underdog mentality, a blue-collar work ethic and a fight-til-the-end approach. The players were keen to push "family," senior pitcher Katie Johnson said, because the closer a team is, the more its pieces are willing to sacrifice and push to extremes for each other, the better it is. When ad- versity hits, if a team has built real relationships, play- ers can overcome knowing everyone has their back, Johnson said. So that word choice was a no-brainer. "Discipline," though? That's a must-have that's much tougher. It requires players not only to have possess it on an individual level — and encompasses what they consider small but important things like fin- ishing every rep, being on time and always emptying the tank, as De Oliveira says — but also, for some, to step outside their comfort zones and enforce it throughout the team. De Oliveira had everyone on the team take a "DISC" personality test to determine their strengths and how people would lead or be willing to be led. It's an ongoing process for players to hold each other accountable, but Johnson said that's a "big step in building a championship culture." "Some people have different reactions to different things, but we accept that with each other. We ap- proach each other in different ways," Johnson said. "It's taken a lot of growing for all of us, for sure, but I think we're trying to shout praise and then whisper criticism. I think that just fits us." The final piece, "fortitude," was born when one player spoke louder than everyone at that team meet- ing and offered a perfect definition, helping it supplant other options like relentless and selfless, De Oliveria said. "Culture is a process," De Oliveira said. "Every team has culture. Culture isn't something you just come in and say, 'I'm going to create a culture.' Ob- viously, there's a culture at Purdue softball. There's a culture everywhere. It's what stage are you? Are you a brand-new program? Are you creating it? Are you an established program? Are you maintaining it? Are you revamping it? For us, we're taking where we have been and where we want to go and making sure we do the development piece to get to where we want to be. "It's an ongoing process. We meet with Cathy Wright- Eger almost every week, and we meet with sports psy- chologist almost every week. I wouldn't say culture is a one-time thing. It's not a one-and-done. It's continual development. Obviously, our core values were estab- lished and we have definitions for all of those that the team came up with, but we're continually tying our core values into leadership meetings weekly and into our daily practices." Though neither De Oliveira nor Johnson gave any kind of hopeful timetable at how soon that off-field em- phasis could translate to on-field success, there'd have to be a quick-as-possible mission. Johnson and her senior classmates have never been to the postseason. To change that fate, De Oliveira and her new staff — Amanda Rivera-Eberhart and Stacy May-Johnson as well as volunteer assistant Ashley Burkhardt — will have needed to increase softball skill sets, too. Last season, Purdue was one of the league's least-productive offenses, batting only .242 (last) with 342 hits (last), scoring 200 runs (third-to-last) and striking out 291 times (third-most). Its fielding wasn't as consistent either, ranking third-to-last in percentage (.953) and having the fourth-most errors (70) in the league. That made it hard to win, even though Lily Fecho "Character drives winning. Bottom line, If we're going to have strong, independent women in our program, we want to make sure we're doing our part to develop their character. " — Boo De Oliveira

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