SMC Weekly Fitness: Softball Pitcher Alice Coleman

Over the past few years, women's softball has been noticeably absent from the sports program at SMC. Luckily for 19-year-old Alice Coleman, 2010 marked the return of a softball program to the college.

Coleman is the starting pitcher for the women's softball team at SMC this year and offers some insight into how she stays in top shape in order to perform at the highest level.    

For Coleman it is the simple things that are key to maintaining her fitness. While she does spend time in the gym strength training, she prefers less traditional methods to lifting weights. "I don't want to look like The Hulk," she says with a smile.

"My favorite types of exercises are the ones where I don't feel like I'm exercising. Going hiking with a few people you can talk to the whole time and not realize two hours later that you have been working out for a few hours," says Coleman.  

Coleman also credits her coach, Michelle Haines, with keeping in-gym workouts interesting. "Our coach has a lot of interesting workout strategies.  She works in the sports department at USC so she has all sorts of different muscle-targeting strategies that she uses with us."

Coleman, a vegetarian, adheres to a strict year-round diet. Since she doesn't eat meat, she makes sure to supplement her diet with non-meat protein sources.  "I generally stick to tofu for a good healthy protein. The only thing that as a vegetarian you really have to struggle with is iron deficiency so I try to consume a lot of beets and leafy green vegetables. Generally in the season I will also take an iron supplement."  

Alice admits that she has a sweet tooth but says she manages to satisfy those cravings in a healthy manner. "I have healthy versions of what other people consider junk food," she says.

Coleman's daily diet is so strict that what she considers a guilty pleasure most would consider healthy. "I'm addicted to an açaí purée with blueberries, topped with sliced bananas and granola. I probably have one every second day," she says.  

Coleman's favorite thing about the SMC softball program is simply that it exists. "What's actually remarkable is that we have a softball program at all," she says.

While Alice would love to continue playing after college, she knows that most adult leagues are slow-pitch and that doesn't offer much opportunity for a pitcher who's been honing her fast-pitch skills for the past twelve years. So for Alice the opportunity to play softball at SMC is something to truly cherish.