All Alabama Athletes Can Take a Cue From ‘Ball of Sunshine’ Sarah Cornell
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — If you’ve ever met Sarah Cornell, the comparison makes complete sense. The blonde hair just adds to the metaphor.
“Sarah is literally like what you would say a ball of sunshine,” Crimson Tide ace Montana Fouts says. “In the dictionary, if it said: ‘Ball of sunshine,’ Sarah’s face would go in there.
“She just lights up a room every time. Even if you’re in a bad mood she’ll make sure that you’re not. She’s do anything to make sure that you’re happy or at least sees a smile come from your face.”
Alabama athletics could use a shot of Cornell right now. We all could. It’s been a spring and summer to forget, on and off the playing fields. With sports trying to restart while the coronavirus pandemic continues, positive thinking can be on short supply.
She sees to have it in abundance.
“I’m still optimistic,” said Cornell, also known as "Cornball."
When we last saw the 2019 SEC Pitcher of the Year, it was March 13th. That's when she posted the tweet that seemed to encapsulate what so many athletes and sports fans were thinking after sports shut down.
As part of the T-Town Showdown that weekend, the softball team was going to hold her Senior Day celebration. The transfer from Hofstra had numerous family members who were going to fly in for the weekend, and an uncle had already arrived early.
But then everything began to go dark, with the lights being turned off at the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, which had already played the first round Nashville, and the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M, mere hours before the opening gun.
The initial word on softball was that season would be able to continue, only that plan obviously collapsed as well. Even the decision to try and play games with no one except parents allowed in the stands at Rhoads Stadium was a tough blow.
“Senior Days are not what they are without the fans,” Cornell said. “The fans make the game for you.”
She subsequently found out on Twitter, while in her car, that not just the weekend tournament, but the entire scheduled had been canceled. Her senior season was over.
“What the heck just happened?” was Cornell's initial thought. Years of planning, sacrificing and upending her life by moving away from her family and home, ended just like that.
That Saturday, instead of the stands being packed with Texas, BYU and Bryant in town, Murphy called the team together one last time. As the meeting ended he asked if everyone, regardless of what they were wearing, would pose for a team picture.
They hadn’t taken one yet. It was the exact opposite of uniform: T-shirts, shorts, jeans, whatever they had on.
“It looked like Sand Lot, taking a picture out at center field,” then coach said.
Then Conner walked to the mound, sat down and pulled out her phone camera. No one had clue that she was about to take the lasting image for the 2020 spring sports.
“That was devastating to her, and everyone because we try and make it a big deal,” Murphy said. “It was really, really sad there for a while thinking that she didn’t get a chance to experience that.
“Now she will.”
Alabama Athletics
This is the part that Alabama, and its fans, should hope continues to rub off. Since her tweet “blew up” (one of the more touching responses was to her mom on Facebook about how someone said they wanted their daughter to be like her. “I really took that to heart.”), Cornell has graduated and been back and forth to New York a couple of times.
Granted, she didn’t like the caged-in feeling she had day in, day out, during the two-plus months back home as New York was on total shutdown. But she also wasn't going to let it stop her.
Sunshine just can’t be bottled up.
Cornell considers this the equivalent of a do-over. With the NCAA allowing spring-sport athletes another year of eligibility, her aim is to take full advantage.
“It was probably the easiest decision of my life,” Cornell said about returning. “I think this is a blessing in disguise for all of us. We have another shot and another year to do something that we’ve dreaming of doing.”
All seven seniors are coming back for the extra year, even pitcher Krystal Goodman, who had graduate school lined up elsewhere. Whatever plans each of them had have all been delayed.
For Cornell, it’ll mean another chance to pitch and graduate school. It’ll also give her a chance to set the record straight on a couple of things.
For example, Cornball is actually a family nickname. Her father had it when playing baseball at Plymouth State in New Hampshire, and then her brother took it over. She was asked when joining the high school varsity team as a seventh grader for any nicknames. So the entire team started calling the kid still two years away from being a freshman “Cornball.”
Second, she almost has to always pause before saying her name in Alabama. In New York it’s always been pronounced like Saur-ah. In Tuscaloosa, people automatically say Say-rah. It’s just easier to go with at school, but Cornell always has to focus on saying it to avoid people responding with “What did you say?”
Finally, she can do a lot more than throw.
When Cornell set the Long Island career strikeout record during her senior year at Clarke High School in Westbury, New York (she had 266, 1,345 total), "Cornball" also batted .500 with nine home runs and 28 RBI.
“She can hit,” said Fouts, calling Cornell one of the best athletes she’s played with. “That’s really impressive and I admire that about her.”
Murphy was just beginning to take advantage of her versatility when the season was cut short. He had even used her as a pinch-runner.
The point is, with someone like Cornell you can’t help but think just about anything is possible. Restarting sports is obviously risky, but that kind of attitude rubs off on other players, can be contagious and really benefit a team.
Or maybe even teams.
“Sarah is the ultimate joyous person you’ll ever meet,” said slugger Bailey Hemphill, another returning senior. “I don’t think I’ve even seen her without a smile on her face. She brings pure happiness and life into the room whenever she walks in, and she’s always laughing. That’s what kind of person she is.”
Hemphill added that yes, “I do call her Cornball.”
