Inner Circle

Where are they now? Kristyn Sandberg, PA Rebellion

Kristyn Sandberg

The National Pro Fastpitch League (NPF) takes place from when players report for practice in mid-May and goes through the Championship Series at the end of August. When looking at the season as a whole, it’s roughly three months of actual games, and it sure goes by fast. So what do the players of the NPF do the other eight and a half to nine months out of the year? The “Where are They Now?” Column covered by Fastpitch News will focus on several NPF Players a month, providing fans with updates and insights on what their favorite Pro Athletes are up to in the lengthy and quiet off-season months. Up Next: Kristyn Sandberg, Catcher for the Pennsylvania Rebellion.

r960-4f541ba306cdf79e128c167c4de19d77

Kristyn Sandberg played her college career at Georgia and was an NFCA All-American athlete

Kristyn Sandberg recently completed her fifth season in the NPF with the Pennsylvania Rebellion. Sandberg has been a member of the Rebellion for the past two seasons and spent her first three seasons in the league as a member of the USSSA Pride. She was named the Miken Rookie of the Year of the NPF in 2012. Sandberg, an All-American, and All-SEC First team member graduated from the University of Georgia in 2012.

Sandberg spent the 2016 off-season months as one of two assistant coaches at Syracuse University. This 2017 off-season, she will continue fulfilling her role as assistant coach at Syracuse alongside fellow Rebellion teammates Alisa Goler and Miranda Kramer. See below:

FPN: Where are you spending your off-season months?

KS: I mostly spend my off-season months in Syracuse, NY. However, the week of Thanksgiving and most of the month of December, I am at my parent’s house on Long Island.

FPN: What is your employment commitment in the off-season?

KS: I am an assistant coach at Syracuse University. I also do hitting and catching clinics once a week.

FPN: What is your role as Assistant coach at Syracuse?

KS: As the assistant coach, my responsibilities are with the outfielders and the catchers. I assist hitting alongside Alisa Goler, we collaborate to see what works best for each of our hitters. In the spring, I do most of the video work for the team, which includes recording opponent game film, tagging film, and uploading the film to Dartfish for the team to look at prior to competition.

13001120_10154396266703352_70084395561032341_n

Sandberg (left) pictured with Syracuse head coach Mike Bosch (center) and current Rebellion teammate Alisa Goler (right).

FPN: How is coaching with fellow NPF teammates Alisa Goler and Miranda Kramer?

KS: It’s been great coaching alongside Alisa the past two years. I would never have imagined playing with her for three years in college, playing against her in the NPF, then becoming teammates on the Rebellion for the past two seasons. Now we get to coach together! Its’ been a pretty amazing journey and it’s rare that you get to go through life having one of your closest friends with you every step of the way. Having been through the same system together at Georgia, it’s easy to coach together; we are both able to use the same hitting and fielding terminology with the team and not feel like we are communicating different things to the players. Miranda has been great to have around as well. She has been with us for a few months now and has really helped our pitchers a lot from both a mental and physical standpoint. She makes great workouts for the pitchers and really challenges them to get better every single day.

FPN: What are you most looking forward to when thinking about the upcoming 2017 college season? Will you be traveling to any new places this year in the pre-season?

KS: This year I am most looking forward to seeing the improvements we’ve made on the field from last season. I think we have a talented young group of players that could really make an impact in Orange this year and compete at a high level in the ACC. I’m most excited about taking the team to Athens, Ga and opening up 2017 at my Alma Mater. Athens will always hold a special place in my heart and I am excited to have our team experience one of the greatest atmospheres in college softball!

FPN: How do you stay in shape in the off-season months?

KS: I would say the first part of the off-season for me is about relaxing and recovering. I take some time to myself to get away from the game, enjoy time with my friends and family, spend time with my dog after being away from her for three months, and head to the beach to relax in the sun and ride some waves on my surfboard. 

11855893_10204915316467520_888537226446105909_n

Sandberg enjoys surfing in the off-season months and grabs her board every chance she gets.

After a month or so it’s back to a training regimen. I am usually in the weight room four to five times a week just focusing on my physical strength and conditioning. I use a combination of workouts I did at Georgia or workouts from our strength and conditioning staff at Syracuse. Sometimes I will even jump in during the team’s conditioning sessions and follow it up with a workout of my own. Prior to last season, I worked with our strength and conditioning coach three times a week for about 30 minutes each time. It was nice having someone else challenge me and push me to my limits mentally and physically.

FPN: You also play pick-up ice hockey games in the Winter. Many NPF players haven’t played a second sport since high school. Do you believe this gives you an advantage?

KS: Honestly, a lot of my conditioning comes from playing ice hockey all winter. I am usually on the ice two to three times a week. This winter I even joined a men’s league and have regular games every Sunday. During the holiday season, it’s more like five times a week on the ice, and some days even twice a day depending on where I can go play. Growing up my heart was really in hockey. I find being able to get back on the ice during the winter helps me get excited again when it comes time for softball season; there’s a fresh excitement about it. I also believe that being a multi-sport athlete helps you be a better athlete in general. Besides playing hockey is way better than just running on a treadmill or sitting on a bike! Given my location in Syracuse, I may also head down to the ski resort and spend some time skiing. That’s a great workout for your legs as well!

fullsizerender-jpg

Sandberg laces up her skates and plays in a men’s hockey league a few times a week in the off-season months.

FPN: What do you do to stay in ‘softball playing shape’ in the off-season months?

KS: Come April, Alisa and I will usually coordinate a time where we can go hit either before or after our team’s practice. We work off tees, throw front toss to each other and even sometimes live. We’re fortunate enough to have a head coach who can throw us batting practice and even last year our volunteer coach, Brittney Lindley (former NPF Rebellion player), could spend some extra time after practice throwing to us in order to prep for the season. From a catching standpoint, I really just try and use any chance I get to catch our pitcher’s bullpens as a time to practice. I’ll work on framing or blocking during their bullpen sessions. On the days I have to catch live at bats for our hitters I really try and lock in from a pitch calling standpoint as well as working on movement behind the plate with a batter in the batter’s box.

FPN: Do you believe coaching makes a positive impact on you as a player? What have you learned?

KS: I definitely think coaching makes a positive impact on you as a player. It’s a lot of “practice what you preach.” When you are trying to get a concept across to the players and saying it over and over again you engrain it into your own head as well. As a coach, players are always looking to you to teach; they observe the way you do things. If you aren’t doing it the way you teach, you may lose a bit of credibility so you have to always make sure you are doing something the way you are teaching it. It also makes you realize why your own coaches did things the way they did. It forces you to think in different perspectives.

FPN: Is there such thing as too much softball? College coaching is a year-round commitment and on top of that, you play for four months in the summer as well as recruit. How do you balance it all?

fullsizerender-jpg-3

Sandberg is entering her second season as the assistant coach at Syracuse University

KS: For me, I don’t think there is such a thing as too much softball. While I am involved in the sport 12 months a year, my role throughout the year is very different. As a coach, you are responsible for player development. Your day-to-day routines are constantly changing; you have different schedules every day, different drills that you are doing with the players, different responsibilities, different practice plans, etc. It’s really dynamic and I think that’s what makes me love my job the most, I’m never doing the same thing every day.

During the summer months, my job is to play. I don’t have to worry about the coaching aspect of the sport. As a player, I only worry about what I need to do day in and day out to be the best player, the best catcher, the best hitter, I can possibly be to help the team win. You get to compete every day. For me, that’s really fun! I’m lucky to still put on a uniform, play at a high level, & compete with & against the best players in the world. — Of course, an added benefit in the NPF when you want to have that coaching mindset is having other college coaches who also play to bounce ideas off and find new ways to help your team.

12486037_1537852679860353_8211435741042228807_o

Sandberg is the starting catcher for the PA Rebellion in the NPF. Photo by Ryan Breiding 

When it comes to recruiting, it provides a nice break at times in the summer for your body. With the NPF schedule, sometimes you could be playing 11 games in 12 days; the schedule can be quite grueling at times. It’s also exciting to get out there on the recruiting trail and see some of your future players competing against each other, or search for the next stud you want on your team. It’s all really dynamic as I said earlier which helps in the constant balancing act of being a player and a coach.

FPN: Summer 2017 in the NPF is six months away, what are you most looking forward to?

KS: I think what I’m most looking forward to most is the opportunity to compete. At this point in my career, it’s about enjoying every moment and enjoying every chance I get to take the field, knowing that at some point it’s all going to come to an end. It’s been a blessing to play in the NPF and play with the best players in the world. Another thing I look forward to most is the chance to meet and interact with our young fans. There’s no other professional sport that award fans the opportunity to meet their favorite players after every game! I think that’s something really special about our game.

 

Feature Image by: Ryan Breiding

To Top