Softball
Favorite athlete: Jaclyn Traina
Favorite team: USA Women’s National Softball Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory would be this past summer getting scouted and verbally committing after a long recovery from back surgery.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Sophomore year at a scrimmage in Nottingham, NJ, my team and I were going to the bathrooms, and we saw a couple of baseball guys walking, and we dared my teammate to grab their butts, and she did and we all ran. My coach was so mad and embarrassed, and we all had to pay the consequences. Now looking back, it was pretty funny.
Music on iPod: Zac Brown Band, Ellie Golding, Tegan and Sara, Passion Pit
Future plans: I will be attending Neumann University to further my education studying psychiatric nursing and playing softball.
Words to live by: “The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength, not lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will.”
One goal before turning 30: Take a road trip with friends and experience things from a different perspective, then settle down and have a big family.
One thing people don’t know about me: I have a severe obsession with coffee. I have it every morning, every day before work and before bed, and if I don’t have it, I get a headache and I get super miserable!
By Mary Jane Souder
Chelsea Briggs is the very definition of a positive person, an optimist in the truest sense of the word.
In the worst of times, the Bensalem senior always finds the bright side.
“The glass is half full with that kid,” softball coach Dan Schram said. “I have never seen her down.”
That’s not to say she hasn’t had her reasons to be down. In reality, Briggs has faced more adversity than most. The fact that she’s playing softball and has verballed to continue her career at Neumann University is a testament to her remarkable determination.
“My sophomore year I started to get pains in my back after one of the games when I was playing travel ball throughout the summer,” Briggs said. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a hamstring pull.’ I was in pain for a year and a half. I really didn’t understand. I didn’t think someone my age could go through that.
“Then it got to the point one day when I really couldn’t walk at all, so I went to the doctor, and he basically told me he thought I would never play softball again. I asked if there was anything I could do for it, and I got three epidural shots in my back. I started going to physical therapy, and it really wasn’t helping.”
That left Briggs with just one option – back surgery. In February of her junior year, she underwent surgery for herniated discs.
It seemed safe to assume Briggs – who was out of school for a month - would miss her junior softball season, but that didn’t happen.
“I was playing by our second game against Neshaminy in April,” she said. “I saw everyone out there playing, and I just wanted to be out there.
“I felt if I pushed myself hard enough I could. It hurt really bad at first, but I was just pushing through the pain, trying to get back out there and play.”
Three games into the season, according to Schramm, Briggs was back in the starting lineup.
“She didn’t miss a beat,” the Owls’ coach said. “She has overcome a great deal of adversity to reach her current level of success.
“Time and time again, she triumphs with a smile. She thrives on positivity. If you didn’t ask her what was going on outside of school, you wouldn’t even know.”
Getting back on the softball diamond was just one of many triumphs for the personable Briggs, who tells her story with matter-of-fact calm.
“Growing up, I pretty much had a normal family,” she said. “When I was in eighth grade going into ninth, my parents got divorced, and my mom – we ended up moving into my grandparents’ house.
“When I was going into my freshman year, my grandmom passed away from cancer. I was living back and forth, and my dad ended up losing his house. My brother – he was a great kid. He actually went to Bensalem High School too. No would have ever thought – but he did go down a dark path and was a drug addict for a little bit. That was really rough on me.
“When that happened, I moved in with my grandpop and mom in Bensalem. I was going from house to house, and it really wasn’t a stable environment because of everything. My dad was trying to help my brother with his problems. I would go to my brother and ask him for help. I really didn’t understand what was going on.
“I was living with my mom and grandfather, who had stage four cancer, and in November, we lost him. I was back and forth once again. I was living with some friends just to make it through the year.
“This year, we finally did move into a house. I am living with my dad now in a stable house.”
Things are starting to fall into place for Briggs and her family. Her brother, six years Chelsea’s senior, is 16 months sober and has turned his life around.
“I really look up to him,” Briggs said. “He’s one of my best friends and one of my role models.
“To see what he went through and to come out of it like he did is (amazing).”
The difficult life experiences have made Briggs a stronger person.
“A lot of kids my age take things very personally, but I’m kind of a go-with-the-flow person,” she said. “Not a lot of things bother me,
“When I was in ninth grade coming in, I was immature, but going through all that has really matured me and made me a strong, independent person.
“I push myself as hard as I can because I know the harder you push yourself, the further you’re going to get in life. You can’t expect anything to be given for free.”
Briggs and fellow senior Jackie Morell are captains of this year’s softball team that enters the season with high expectations. It’s a title the four-year varsity starter does not take lightly.
“Mr. Schram is one of the nicest and most humble people I have ever met - he really is understanding,” she said of her coach. “Seeing where I came from my freshman year to now – I’ve pushed myself really hard, and it’s just a great feeling to know that somebody is watching and seeing that I’m trying to do my best.”
And Briggs’ best along with her determination to defy the odds has given her an opportunity to continue her softball career at the collegiate level, something she didn’t think was possible.
“At a young age, I was determined to get to that level,” she said. “After I found out about my back and my doctors saying I wouldn’t be able to play in college – I told my mom and dad, ‘That’s it. All this time and money we’re putting in for me to play travel, and I’m not going to play in college. I really don’t think I’m going to continue playing.’
“After my surgery, I picked up a softball again. I said, ‘I think I can push myself really hard, and if I can get a coach to come out and see me…’ I signed up for a CaptainU profile, and the first coach to contact me was coach (Bill) Saar from Neumann.
“I had two more coaches that e-mailed me that were really interested. That was the drive that pushed me to want to continue.”
*****
Briggs has been playing softball since she was seven years old and joined the travel circuit with the Lower Bucks Lady Lions when she was nine. Most recently, she played for the South Jersey Mystics. At close to six feet, she is a natural at first base.
“From the time she got to high school, she already had a great handle on how to field her position,” Schram said. “As a first baseman, she closes defensive plays out, and she does so with great calm.
“Her execution of that position is a combination of experience and a very focused individual, but I must say – the most impressive thing about Chelsea that has the greatest impact on her game is her tenacity and toughness.”
Briggs has needed every ounce of that tenacity and toughness as she juggles a schedule that would break most.
“I work 45 hours a week, and I go to school,” she said. “It’s just a lot a time management and figuring out what’s important to put first.”
Wednesdays through Sundays, Briggs works at TGI Friday’s.
“Sunday night I worked until one in the morning and then went to school,” she said. “I’ll work until 12 o’clock on school nights and then I get up and go to school. It’s school, softball and work. That’s usually what I do.
“In the past, I’ve had two or three jobs at a time to try to make ends meet and help out with the family.”
Again, there’s not a trace of frustration, and Briggs, according to her coach, may have acquired her personality from her parents.
“Even though on paper, it sounds like it was complete adversity and struggle – when I meet the parents, I know why the kid is the way she is,” Schram said. “Her parents are very, very nice people. They’re very supportive.
“They’re at her game. She comes from two really nice parents.”
The recipient of an 85 percent scholarship to Neumann, Briggs – an honors student - will major in psychiatric nursing.
“I’ve always been interested in nursing, even at a young age,” she said. “Both my grandparents were really ill when I was younger, and from nine years old, I would help take care of my grandpop.
“I’m in AP psychology, and it’s just really interesting to me. My friend’s mom is a psychiatric nurse, and she says it’s a tough job, but she wouldn’t trade it – just knowing that you’re helping people out is great.”
And if anyone seems to fit the bill to handle that challenging profession with grace and strength, it would seem to be Briggs.
“I’m looking forward to knowing her in the second part of life as an adult because I think what was once coach-to-player - she will always be a friend of mine moving forward,” Schram said. “She has that kind of disposition that she’s just someone you’d want to know.”
