Yasmin Mossadeghi was a standout hitter in college used to circling the bases. Two years ago, she took over a Southwestern College softball team that was circling the drain.
Not anymore. Mossadeghi’s Lady Jaguars made the playoffs for the first time in SWC history, the longest drought of any sport on the Bonita Mesa.
Mossadeghi likes to hit the ball out of the park. She holds the record for career home runs in the Big West Conference with 47 and was invited to try out for the U.S. National Team. She is also used to winning and has instilled a new spirit in the Lady Jags.
“I’m always striving every year to be in the top two because when you’re in the top two for softball, you move on to (the playoffs),” she said.
Mossadeghi and her coaches understand mechanics and know how to communicate with 2012s.
“The coaching staff works really well to fix what you’re doing wrong,” said freshman Carli Gilstrap. “Most coaches just expect you to know what you’re doing.”
Through her playing experience, Mossadeghi learned to reach for her goals without hesitation.
“I got drafted in the pro league to play in Colorado and little did I know that at the last second that team disbanded so I was really frustrated because I couldn’t get on another pro team in the U.S.,” said Mossadeghi.
She signed with a German pro team called the Freising Grizzlies and won a national championship in 2005.
“It was amazing…a different experience,” said Mossadeghi. “They’re not as experienced in softball. The level is not as good as it is here in the States.”
German women do not have the luxury of great equipment and full-time softball. Most were in school and worked while they played on the team. Playing surfaces often left much to be desired.
“The field that I played at, we were next to a corn field,” said Mossadeghi. “The grass was not so good and storms would pass through daily. It was pretty crazy. They would even drink carbonated water during practice. Me and the other American were like, ‘How are they drinking carbonated water?’ We’d be burping all practice and it made me feel full and we’d laugh because we’d need regular tap water in order to perform during practice so we would bring our own. So yeah, it was very different in culture.”
Something that inspired Mossadeghi in Germany was seeing her under-equiped, overworked teammates to go out every day and play hard.
“They didn’t have an incentive such as a scholarship,” said Mossadeghi. “(In America), there is a passion, but sometimes it may not come from the athlete themselves, it may be coming from the parents pushing them because (they) need that scholarship to go to college, whereas in Germany they don’t have scholarships. They’re just playing for fun and the love of the game.”
Mossadeghi then played with the elite Russian club Carrousel in hopes of making the national team. Paperwork issues prevented that, so she returned to the United States to finish her Master’s degree in kinesiology at Cal State Fullerton. She also wrote a book called “Between the Lines: The Mental Skills of Hitting for Softball,” the softball equivalent of Ted Williams’ classic “The Science of Hitting.”
“It was part of my Master’s project at Cal State Fullerton,” said Mossadeghi. “I really wanted to do it because there were always books on mental skills for baseball and mental skills for golf and tennis. There are a lot of mental skill books tied in with other sports other than softball and softball has become such a huge sport here in the States. I feel that for our sport the girls need something specifically that they can relate to what they do instead of reading a book about tennis and then trying to relate it to softball.”
In her book she describes the basis of her hitting concepts as confidence and positivity, characteristics she preaches to her Jags.
“In the fall we were telling them how to turn negative ways of thinking into positive ways of thinking,” said Mossadeghi. “You’re more likely to succeed going into something positive and confident. Some points I do put out is that they need to have a lot of confidence in everything they do. That they’re all in and they’re not going 50 percent in what they do. That when they take a cut they have full confidence that they’re going to make contact with that ball… that when they field a ball, they’re going to field it and finish it no doubt.”
Mossadeghi said she tries to instill her love for the game into her players.
“She’s really passionate about the sport,” said center fielder Michelle Centrullo. “Her being passionate makes us passionate about it. You can just tell she loves being out here.”