Nuve Approach

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Nuveman had already hit 51 home runs in only her first two
collegiate seasons and breaking the NCAA career home run mark of 85
was merely a formality. And Manson wanted nothing more than to meet
one of her idols.

Manson wanted Nuveman to come to her high school, to share her
wish with her softball teammates, the same friends who saw her
through the chemo and radiation treatments. Manson, who has never
travelled to Los Angeles, could have come to UCLA and visited
Hollywood. But her teammates wouldn’t have been there.

That kind of sacrifice, Manson’s fight with cancer and the
whole experience, hit Nuveman hard. The trip to Ohio re-enforced
(in Nuveman) the idea that softball is a game, and life is
life.

The moment so overwhelmed her, she couldn’t help but
cry.

“To me, just to think that some girl from a small town in
Ohio read about me in the USA Today and wants to meet me … that
to me was just overwhelming,” Nuveman said.

“Awards, records, all that. Literally, burn them all. Send
them all home. Take my name out of everything. If my legacy is left
that I had an impact on one person as far away as she was, going
through cancer, life and death, that means more than anything else
I’ve ever done.”

Manson is now healthy, in remission from Hodgkin’s. And as
Nuveman, now in her senior season, finds herself three home runs
shy of breaking the NCAA record, she is very comfortable about
admitting she is not likely to hold the mark for long.

The record doesn’t matter all that much.

Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;

Nuveman had already achieved a great deal of balance prior to
the trip to Ohio. She doesn’t rely just on softball and those
who know her best call her a better person than a softball
player.

“I think it’s a testament to her upbringing and her
family,” UCLA head coach Sue Enquist said. “There are a
lot of great softball players out there, but there are so few that
are as balanced as Stacey Nuveman.”

Her parents couldn’t agree more.

“She has a lot of dimensions that go beyond softball. Way
beyond softball,” her mother, Susan, said. “She’s
going to be a success no matter what, regardless of
softball.”

But she’s just so good at softball. Nuveman will leave her
footprint all over the UCLA media guide. Her discipline at the
plate for a slugger is rather disturbing. The 44 walks to only
seven strikeouts this season show how Nuveman can be aggressive yet
selective at the same time.

“Stacey has got a gift,” volunteer assistant coach
and Olympic teammate Lisa Fernandez said. “I don’t know
of too many hitters that are as powerful as she is being able to
hit not only for power but for average.”

How feared is she?

Susan recalled what a friend of theirs, whose daughter played at
Washington, once said: “Your daughter would have to be a
paraplegic, in a wheelchair, with a glass-eye, and I still would
walk her. She’s damaged our program so many times.”

Whenever a hitter reaches second base, leaving first open,
Nuveman is almost automatically walked. What other options do teams
have? It’s the lesser of two evils to put her on base rather
than allow her to beat you.

“We intentionally walked her twice today, unintentionally,
of course,” Cal head coach Diane Ninemire said after
Sunday’s 1-0 loss to UCLA.

No, she’s not perfect. Nuveman’s only visible
drawback on the softball field is her speed. Though she has three
stolen bases this season, she is not likely to leg out many
hits.

“Like she says, “˜I can hit with the best of them. I
can field with the best of them. I can’t run with the best of
them,'” Susan said.

“She always says “˜I got my dad’s
speed,'” her father, Tom, said.

Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;

As Tom Nuveman spent a lot of time coaching his son in little
league, his wife had to remind him that there was also an
8-year-old girl around.

“Tom grew up in a family of all boys, so it’s like
“˜What do I do with a little girl?'” Susan
said.

The answer was to bribe her with money for the snack bar, which
Stacey would use to get the likes of nachos and licorice.

“I’d get my food and then go play in the jungle gym.
I didn’t watch the games,” Stacey said.

Tom ran her through drills with the boys and kept her busy
shagging fly balls. When they would get home, Tom kept telling
Susan how Stacey was better than half of the older boys out there,
and how Stacey would grab the team’s equipment bag and take
out her favorite attire.

“I thought catcher’s gear was the coolest
thing,” Stacey said. “I’d walk around and pretend
I was catching.”

Looking back, catcher’s gear is not as much fun for
Nuveman. It’s more of a burden actually. But she didn’t
have to worry about that early on.

When she began organized softball at age 9, the coach put her at
first base because the other girls were afraid of Nuveman’s
throws.

That’s where Nuveman picked up an early habit. Nuveman
would waive to her mother from her hip.

“She always tells that story and I’d like to say
that I don’t remember doing that, but I actually do,”
Nuveman said. “And it’s so funny now, because if
I’m playing first base she always tries to wave at me now.
She wants me to wave at her, but I just won’t do
it.”

Now Stacey will try to look away, or acknowledge her mother with
a simple nod of the head. It’s an inside joke within the
family.

Just as Susan concerned herself with whether Stacey had fun, Tom
was the one pushing her when on the field. Tom stopped
Stacey’s practice of the wave at an early stage because he
knew his daughter must focus while on the field.

At points, if both parents drove to a softball game, Stacey
would prefer to drive home with her mother because she didn’t
want to discuss the specifics with her father.

Today both parents admit they’ve learned not to talk about
the game much. Stacey’s performance speaks for itself.

Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;

The other day in the airport, Nuveman’s team lost at a
board game, and those around her were unable to, at least early on,
help her shake off her bad mood.

That fire inside was lit long ago during repeated losses in just
about anything to her older brother, Ryan.

“I credit him to my competitive spirit,” Nuveman
said. “I wasn’t born with the “˜I have to win at
any cost’ and that’s how he was. And I used to always
lose. Finally it got to the point where I was sick of losing and I
wanted to win.”

That hatred for losing is probably why last year’s result
left her dissatisfied. In 2000, UCLA finished second to Arizona,
losing the NCAA title game 1-0.

Hitters like Leneah Manuma of Arizona or Jenny Topping of Cal
State Fullerton could eventually break Nuveman’s soon-to-be
career home run record. But no one can take a title away from you,
and that, being an ultimate team goal, is what drives Nuveman this
season.

A sixth-year senior (because of a 1998 redshirt year and the
2000 season spent with the Olympic team), Nuveman had to make the
decision to fully commit herself to softball again.

“As a sixth-year senior, it’s a big joke and
everyone laughs about it,” Nuveman said. “But
it’s not easy to come back after being around the block.
It’s like, “˜OK, this is supposed to be a mile race and
I’m on my sixth lap.'”

To make sure she just wouldn’t go through the motions this
season, Nuveman took off for Europe last summer for seven weeks
after she finished a short tour with Team USA.

Near the end of her vacation, mentally rested and refreshed, she
began to think about softball once again. She no longer saw the
sprints as a burden, but rather a gift. She was now ready to be the
“grandmother” of the team.

“She’s just one of those people that you want to
have on your team and not against you,” senior centerfielder
Amanda Freed said. “She’s one of those people that
others want to follow.”

Not so long ago, Nuveman was still obsessed with perfection. But
after her experiences in UCLA, the Olympics, Oklahoma City and
Ohio, she can now step back, feel at ease with herself, and
concentrate on what matters most.

“I think what is impressive about Stacey and the legacy
that she leaves behind,” Enquist said, “is she truly
gets it when it comes to perspective, putting the sport where it
belongs in her life.”