FIVE QUESTIONS with ... Arkansas freshman infielder Nicole Schroeder



FIVE QUESTIONS with ... Arkansas freshman infielder Nicole Schroeder

Nicole Schroeder hit .425 with nine home runs last year as a senior at Esperanza High.

Make a name for yourself.

It's a phrase used often in sports, and for most athletes it entails realizing your potential and blazing a path to prominence.

For former Esperanza High third baseman Nicole Schroeder, it requires much, much more.

"Anywhere I go I get the, 'Oh, you're the little Schroeder,'" said Nicole, 18, the youngest of four sisters. "That's mainly why I went to Arkansas – to get away from it all."

Preceded in college by Jennifer (UCLA, 2005-09), Michelle (Stanford, 2007-10) and Katie (UCLA, 2008-11), the 5-foot-10 infielder has spent the last four months distancing herself from her sisters' collective shadow.

Nicole has started upwards of 45 games in her collegiate apprenticeship, and has maintained a .250 batting average for much of the season.

She is also approaching double-digit home runs.

Q. How beneficial was growing up around sisters who played college softball?

A. I wouldn't be playing if it weren't for my sisters. I spent my whole life on the softball field. Every game that my sisters had, I'd be at. I'd see how they play and then try to act how they did. There was a lot of competition between them, but I'm so much younger that I didn't really experience that. Right now, I want to beat them in a way. I'm just competitive like that.

Q. What kind of work did you put in this offseason to prepare for spring?

A. I was still playing travel ball last summer so I was practicing every weekend; running and lifting weights to get ready for workouts here. I'm the kind of person who was so nervous prior to the season that I was hitting every hour I could to make sure I was doing OK.

Q. What would you say has been your biggest adjustment?

A. I went from being a senior captain at Esperanza to being thrown into the bottom of the food chain. The SEC (Southeastern Conference) is pretty tough, so I've had to learn how to not play so much as a freshman. You have to work at that, though; it's not easy. You have to remind yourself that everyone is playing the same game on the same level, and you have to act like it.

Q. With the season nearing its completion, how would you assess your first go-round in college?

A. I didn't expect to do this bad, in a way, but it's all a learning experience. I just have to learn from every at-bat and go into the next one forgetting about the one before. You just have to let it go. I know it is harder competition, but I expect more of myself.

Q. What have you enjoyed most about playing at Arkansas?

A. This school is all the state has (in terms of sport teams), so there are a lot of hardcore fans. One weekend we had a spring football game, our baseball team was in town, and we were in town. Our football game had like 61,000 people, our baseball game had 11,000 and we had 2,000. It's incredible to see such passionate fans, because that's something you don't see in California with the amount of teams in the area.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3790 or

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