{"id":5495,"date":"2024-05-31T15:14:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T19:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/?p=5495"},"modified":"2024-07-30T09:02:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T13:02:55","slug":"first-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2024\/first-pitch\/","title":{"rendered":"First Pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Lindsay Leftwich became the face of NC&#160;State softball last summer when she left her job as an assistant coach at Louisiana State University after coaching stops at Florida International University and New Mexico. <em>NC&#160;State<\/em> magazine caught up with Leftwich before the spring season started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve lived in Louisiana. You\u2019re from Houston, Texas. Now, North Carolina. Did you think about barbecue when you took the job?\u2009. . .<\/strong>\u2009A couple of people asked me about it. They\u2019re like, \u201cWhat are you going to do? It\u2019s vinegar-based.\u201d And I was like, \u201cAt the worry of offending some North Carolina locals, I\u2019m just going to have my own sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You saw so much success at LSU\u2009\u2014\u2009four College World Series appearances. How do you use that to set a vision here?\u2009. . .<\/strong>\u2009We sent out this survey to alumni, to everybody who touches our program, to every current team member. We asked, \u201cWhat are the words that you think we need to do in order to find success?\u201d We decided W for \u201cwork,\u201d O for \u201cownership,\u201d L for \u201clove,\u201d and F for \u201cfight,\u201d which spells \u201cwolf.\u201d All the words have three-word definitions that everyone can tell you about, and we try and use them every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What will be the earmarks of your NC&#160;State teams?\u2009. . .<\/strong>\u2009Effort, across the board, will look different. Energy, across the board, will look different. That\u2019s how you will know it\u2019s our team.\u2009. . .\u2009I think we are going to be better than NC&#160;State has ever been defensively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How are you dealing with NIL and the transfer portal?\u2009. . . <\/strong>The place that I came from does NIL really well. . . .\u2009From a female sport perspective, so much of the NIL stuff needs to be generated and pushed by the athletes themselves. We\u2019re set up here to educate them in better ways\u2009. . .\u2009and be like, \u201cHey, if you really love this brand, here\u2019s how we can help you move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"<!-- wp:ncst\/dynamic-header {\"block\":\"ncst\/default-post-header\"} -->\n<!-- wp:ncst\/default-post-header {\"displayCategoryID\":9,\"subtitle\":\"Lindsay Leftwich takes the helm of Wolfpack softball.\"} \/-->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/dynamic-header -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"className\":\"is-style-lead\"} -->\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Lindsay Leftwich became the face of NC State softball last summer when she left her job as an assistant coach at Louisiana State University after coaching stops at Florida International University and New Mexico. <em>NC State<\/em> magazine caught up with Leftwich before the spring season started.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve lived in Louisiana. You\u2019re from Houston, Texas. Now, North Carolina. Did you think about barbecue when you took the job?\u2009. . .<\/strong>\u2009A couple of people asked me about it. They\u2019re like, \u201cWhat are you going to do? It\u2019s vinegar-based.\u201d And I was like, \u201cAt the worry of offending some North Carolina locals, I\u2019m just going to have my own sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>You saw so much success at LSU\u2009\u2014\u2009four College World Series appearances. How do you use that to set a vision here?\u2009. . .<\/strong>\u2009We sent out this survey to alumni, to everybody who touches our program, to every current team member. We asked, \u201cWhat are the words that you think we need to do in order to find success?\u201d We decided W for \u201cwork,\u201d O for \u201cownership,\u201d L for \u201clove,\u201d and F for \u201cfight,\u201d which spells \u201cwolf.\u201d All the words have three-word definitions that everyone can tell you about, and we try and use them every day.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>What will be the earmarks of your NC State teams?\u2009. . .<\/strong>\u2009Effort, across the board, will look different. Energy, across the board, will look different. That\u2019s how you will know it\u2019s our team.\u2009. . .\u2009I think we are going to be better than NC State has ever been defensively.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>How are you dealing with NIL and the transfer portal?\u2009. . . <\/strong>The place that I came from does NIL really well. . . .\u2009From a female sport perspective, so much of the NIL stuff needs to be generated and pushed by the athletes themselves. We\u2019re set up here to educate them in better ways\u2009. . .\u2009and be like, \u201cHey, if you really love this brand, here\u2019s how we can help you move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lindsay Leftwich takes the helm of Wolfpack softball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"displayCategoryID\":9,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Lindsay Leftwich takes the helm of Wolfpack softball.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[109,1420,1417,1418,1084,1421,1422],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-5495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newswire","category-stories","tag-athletics","tag-florida-international-university","tag-lindsay-leftwich","tag-louisiana-state-university","tag-softball","tag-university-of-new-mexico","tag-womens-college-world-series"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":9,"name":"Stories","slug":"stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":249,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5495"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5547,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5495\/revisions\/5547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5495"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=5495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}