Naperville's Sammy Marshall a jack of all trades for Chicago Bandits
While outfielder Sammy Marshall continues her young playing career with the Chicago Bandits, fastpitch softball isn't the only only job where this Naperville native is finding success.
This past offseason, Marshall began her first year working in the Bandits front office as the Coordinator of High School Events and Affiliates, which involves running camps and clinics along with other office duties.
"We have always wanted to expand our front office with a player or two, and Sammy was the perfect fit," said general manager Aaron Moore. "She's from the area, played high school and travel ball in the area and also attended college in the state. Those reasons alone were big in us bringing her on board. Her familiarity with the area's softball was a huge bonus to our team."
National Pro Fastpitch fans, of course, are familiar with the Bandits, the defending Cowles Cup champs who are battling the USSSA Pride again in the championship game tonight (7 p.m. CSSSN). The Bandits are down 1-0 in the best-of-three series and face elimination after defeating Monica Abbott and the ScrapYard Dawgs in their first NPF series with a 2-1 win on Sunday.
While she enjoys playing for the Bandits as well as the work she has been able to do as a member of the team's front office, don't expect to see Marshall as a general manager or team executive any time soon. She says sitting behind a desk isn't for her and prefers being on the go, which is why she wants to coach full-time.
Marshall, who led the Bandits with 15 stolen bases in the regular season, has begun the road to making that dream a reality as she just finished her first season as the head softball coach at Wheaton Academy.
"It was challenging, awesome and everything in between," said Marshall. "I had some girls who had never played softball before and then two girls who were D-I commits. So finding that balance was difficult, but the girls were awesome, I have great assistant coaches and I learned who I was as a coach and how I wanted to improve."
Another major project Marshall had in the offseason was helping create the Bandits' newest jersey. The design, which features dark blue and orange with the Bandits script across the front, is now worn as the team's alternate uniform.
"Blue is one of our main colors and we didn't really have that option last year. I felt it was a color we really needed to utilize," said Marshall. "I pitched it to our general manager. We just bounced ideas off of each other and he liked what I put on there and ordered them for the team."
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