Day in the Life: McKenzie Woody

With an infectious smile and a packed schedule, softball player McKenzie Woody faces her busy day with the same stoic confidence that her sport demands.
Known as “the feisty one,” due to her strong athletic ability and petite stature, Woody’s 5-foot-3-inch frame can be seen hustling from practice, work, and class.
Woody’s busiest day of the week is Monday. She wakes up at 9:30 a.m. and grabs a snack before changing in the locker room for a weightlifting workout.
The team weightlifts from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and then the early childhood education major goes to her education class from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
After class, Woody eats lunch with her teammates in the cafeteria since she doesn’t follow a specific diet and typically chooses to eat pasta, a salad, and some bread.
The senior athlete finishes up her meal and then goes to her second education class, which lasts from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Then Woody will either return to her room for a quick break or go to the training center for injury treatment, “As a softball player [you are] getting beat up all the time and running all the time your legs get sore, so even getting into the cold tank after practice is a nice break,” said Woody.
After a quick break, the feisty softball player is once again in class from 3 p.m. until 5:25 p.m. for her math and science research class, which is one of the requirements for her major.
Running from her last class, the athlete goes to softball practice and grabs a snack on the way. After practice, which gets done at 7 p.m., the team will go to the locker room and then to cafeteria for dinner.
Later on, Woody prepares school lessons, which she describes as a “tedious” task. Sometimes Woody unwinds by watching some TV which she says is her, “break from life.”
The lights are turned off by 10:30 p.m. for the worn-out softball player, “I go to sleep so early since softball has started, so by 10:30 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. I am passed out asleep,” Woody said.
The next day Woody will get up at 7:45 a.m. to go help teach at a local school as apart of an education major’s fieldwork experience.
Although the athlete didn’t envision herself teaching, she enjoyed helping out her sisters who were teachers. “Helping with their classes when I was in school or over Christmas break, I loved the kids and I’ve always been around kids,” Woody said.
Even though Woody admits that life never really slows down, she attempts to maintain a positive outlook. “Our coaches are so positive with us and my teammates get along, so it makes everything better because we can hang out as a team and also hang out as friends. Talking to my parents and everyone coming out to support games and me [also helps]. That’s how I was raised, so that’s how I try to keep it positive.”