Walk into Dick Howser Stadium on a warm weekend in February, and the first names that might come to mind are J.C. Flowers, Cooper Swanson or Drew Mendoza. Perhaps, 40-year coaching veteran Mike Martin is in your head. However, welcoming smiles are always the first faces you see walking in, they’re the Florida State Bat Girls!
The Bat Girls do plenty, from sitting on the field, collecting foul balls and delivering them back to the umpire, to interacting with young fans and handing out posters and collectibles. These women are an integral part of the gameday experience since they’re there to make your day as a fan even better!
Her Campus was lucky enough to sit down with the Executive Board of the Bat Girls for a quick interview. The board is made up of President Whitney Hobbs, Vice President Jordan Crawford, and Secretary Hannah Kilbride, and each of them gave their inputs on what it’s like to be a Bat Girl!
Her Campus (HC): What is a Bat Girl?
Whitney Hobbs (WH): As Bat Girls, we kind of have two roles. We work really closely with sports marketing, so we’re involved with promotions, any of the advertising for baseball. We also do gameday operations, so we sell programs and buttons and we also pick up the bats and foul balls as well.
HC: What made you want to be a Bat Girl?
Jordan Crawford (JC): I wanted to be a Bat Girl because, personally, I grew up in Tallahassee so I grew up going to the baseball games, and I got to see the things that they got to do, like being on the field and being involved with the fans and getting to interact with all of them. That’s something that I wanted to be involved with as well.
HC: What’s your favorite memory as a Bat Girl?
WH: My favorite memory was probably when I had the opportunity to go to the ACC Tournament last year working that game at a much bigger stadium, which was really cool.
JC: I would say that mine was traveling to Boston last year, when they played Boston College at Fenway Park, and getting to see them win at Fenway Park was pretty exciting.
Hannah Kilbride (HK): For me, it would be winning the ACC Championship two years ago, I think it was the first time that I was in college and I saw that, and it was really great to experience.
HC: What’s your biggest goal as a Bat Girl?
WH: I think that every year our biggest goal is hoping we make it to Omaha [the College World Series], I think that’s all of our goals. Personally, my goal was to be President– Bat Girls has given me so much more than I could ever imagine, so I wanted the opportunity to give back and be on the Executive Board and help out as much as I could.
HC: Did any of you play softball growing up? If so, for how long?
JC: I did play softball since I was probably six years old. I played in middle school and high school, and I also actually played one summer league of baseball too at a local league in Tallahassee. I played for probably about thirteen years of my life.
HK: I also played softball growing up for. I’d say around thirteen years since I was five years old.
WH: I never played softball or baseball, but I’ve always been a huge baseball fan, and then I danced growing up, so I loved the fan interaction aspect of Bat Girls.
HC: How do you become a Bat Girl?
WH: It’s a pretty extensive try-out process, first you submit an application, then we do a group tryout to try and get a feel for your personality, then we ask a number of girls to come back for one-on-one interviews, and then after that, we select our 25 girls!
HC: If you could describe your experience in one word, what would it be?
JC: Rewarding.
WH: Family.
HK: Passion. It’s brought a lot of passion out of me that I didn’t know I had with both the girls and baseball in general.
It’s clear that being a Florida State Bat Girl has had a profound effect on these three women, and their passion for both their organization and the sport of baseball is magnificent. In all, the spirit that the Bat Girls bring to gameday leaves every fan feeling happy.