GoHatters.com: How did your career as a catcher first begin?
Jessica Griffin: It was within the first year of my starting softball. It was 'Griffins go in the outfield', so I was in the outfield, and I got terribly bored. And so I told my dad I wanted to catch, and he told me I didn't. He told me I was wrong. He said it's a lot. We usually do the outfield thing. I said I think I want to be in every play. Little me, I wanted to be involved in everything.

GH: How old were you?
JG: 10.

GH: And from that point on...
JG: I have been catching.

GH: Were there any obstacles at first to being a left-handed catcher?
JG: I got told there was. I got told many times I can't make the tag at home, I can't make the throw to third. I like to come back and say, 'you can't make the throw to first,' and those little things. I did not feel them. I just overcame them.

GH: Did you get a lot of pushback?
JG: At first I did because I grew up around the baseball environment, and they are very insistent that left-handed catchers don't exist, so I was fighting that for a long time.

GH: What do you like most about catching?
JG: I have to say what 10-year old me said, and that is I like being involved in every play. I like being involved in every aspect of it. As I have grown, I think it has been evolving pitchers. The fun part for me is seeing how far I can push them, and how much I can get them to give to me.

GH: What do you like least about being a catcher?
JG: I can't keep my hair nice. When I wear that helmet, my hair is always messed up.

GH: What are some typical bumps, bruises, and injuries you get as a catcher that a typical position player would not experience?
JG: If anything, it is the foul balls to the head. Those never feel great. Any foul balls to the body. They are coming straight back, so they don't feel great either.

GH: What about the wear and tear of having to squat so much?
JG: My knees … they feel it. I feel it. At the end of the day, you are going to feel it.

GH: You are Psychology major. Do you find yourself ever using "psychology" skills when working with pitchers?
JG: On the field, I try not to go too deep with them. They are an athlete on the field. Feeling them out at practice, that's where you get into communication skills and learning to listen to them as well as being able to communicate back to them. That is the biggest thing I have learned is to listen more to what they have to say, and you kind of learn from that. It is not telling them what to do as much as leading them to learn what to do.

GH: How important is it to develop a rapport with each individual pitcher.
JG: I think that is the best part about Stetson. You hear about bigger schools where just anyone gets thrown in the bullpen to catch, and here, I get to go 1-on-1 with them in the bullpen and learn what is going well and what is going wrong with them. If something is going wrong in the bullpen, I get to see it firsthand. I get to see coach B correct it. That way, I can go out in the middle of the game and say, do you remember when this was going on in the bullpen? What did we say? What did we do to fix it? I think that is huge to build that relationship with them.

GH: When go out to talk to a pitcher, is it usually to be informational, encouraging, or to light a fire under them?
JG: It depends on the pitcher. If it is Tori out there, it is more to light the fire. She is a competitor. It is more, 'Let's do this. Let's strike her out.' With Chelsea, it is more support and encouragement. It just depends on the pitcher and the situation.

GH: Have you ever had to give a scolding?
JG: Oh yes. You see their body language. I don't even have to hear what they say. Letting them talk to you really isn't going to help. You have to pull the coach card and get on them.

GH: How often do you interact with umpires?
JG: I usually love to talk to them. Usually you see the same ones, and there have been a couple that I grown to know quite well. I am happy to see them. We joke around back there. We laugh at the people in the stands. Then, there are a few where you learn to just not say anything. They are there to call balls and strikes. They don't want you asking them about pitches. They don't want you asking questions. .You know your role then is to protect them. But that is few and far between. Usually they are very nice.

GH: Do you interact with opposing batters?
JB: A lot times when coaches call time, we will look at each other and chit chat. As long as they are up for it. I am not too serious back there. It just depends on the team.

GH: You are in a unique situation where the coaching staff wants you to call your own game. How do you feel about that?
JG: That is my favorite part of the game. I have done it for a while, maybe since I was 15. My dad got me developing that skill. It was daunting at first for sure, Clearly, you are going to mess up, and you have to take ownership for that, and that is probably the worst part about it, but if you are not hitting well, or something else is going wrong, you have that to fall back on. You have that to use the intellectual part of your mind, and I love it.

GH: So it is intellectually challenging?
JG:It is! You are remembering what she did in her last at-bat. You are looking at her batting angles, you are looking at everything. Where she is at the plate. Coaches can't see all of that every time. They are going off memory. They are going off what other teams tell them. You see a lot of things that coaches don't see, and I love using that to our advantage.

GH: How much prep do you have to do prior to a game?
JG: I wouldn't say it is a lot but it is more than usual. I am looking at stats, I am looking at scouts. During the game, you will see coach B come out before every inning. We are going over what the next three batters have done, and trying to remember everything. It has gotten easier over the years. In travel ball, it is a different team and different players every day. But in conference, you remember different players.

GH: Do you notice when other catchers are looking into the dugout to get the signs and the pitch calls?
JG: It looks like such a hassle. I think, 'That stinks!' Especially when they give it to just the pitcher. They take the catcher right out of it. That just seems so insulting. The pitcher will get the sign and be ready to pitch, and the catcher is still fumbling around (with the wristband). I would say, 'You all can wait for me.'

I remember freshman year, we had (the wristbands) with Coach B, and I told her I didn't like it. She had to feel me out at first, my freshman year, so she was calling for a while.

GH: When did you start calling your own pitches?
JG: I don't remember. One day I just asked her (to start calling my own pitches). It was sometime freshmen year. She likes that, too. She was a catcher, and she knew what to do. She knows that you are capable of doing it. She knows you can see more than they can see. She eventually wanted me to be doing it. She just had to feel me out first.

GH: How tiring is it to catch a doubleheader?
JG: It is very tiring, especially in college. In travel ball, it didn't feel like anything. It wasn't bad freshman and sophomore years, but junior and senior years it has taken its toll. It is kind of weird. You don't feel it until the end of all of it. In the fifth inning of the second game, I am not sitting there feeling like I am going to die. That night and the next morning, you are definitely feeling it.

GH: How does one catch 125+ games in a row without missing any?
JG: Gladly. So enthusiastically. At this point, it is part of me. I love it.

GH: Do you have to be extra well-conditioned to handle that?
JG: I would definitely say so, especially with your legs. It is not just squatting in one place. I feel that's what people used to think about catching. You just need a big person back there to squat and get in front of the ball. There is so much more to that. You are throwing down, you are moving all over the place, you have to be fast on your blocks. I really think our conditioning this year helped me be prepared for the season.

GH: Will you look back and be proud of the fact that you caught nearly every game for four straight years?
JG: Definitely. No matter how it went, catching was my backbone, so that will be one of the best things for me to look back on.

GH: Would you ever like to catch again, in pick-up games or other opportunities?
JG: I think I would like to. I think my body will recover and I will be fine. I would love to catch again. I can't imagine being stuck in the outfield.

GH: Do you remember playing right field as a freshman?
JG: Yes, it was awful. I was so scared. I had not been out in the outfield in eight months, and coach was like 'Go play right field.' I was terrified, and I think one went through my legs. I do remember that. It went right through my legs. I was like, 'I am so sorry guys.'

GH: Have you ever forgotten to bring your equipment to a game?
JG: This weekend I left my glove out in the bullpen, and I had to go run and get it. Maybe one time I had to use someone else's gear in travel ball, but never here.

GH: Is there a game and pitching performance at Stetson that you caught that stands out as the most memorable?
JG: I want to say Meredith against Upstate my sophomore year. She was just utterly dominating. It was their monster year. Meredith just absolutely shut them down. Everything was just moving all over the place. Anytime a pitcher can throw it where your glove is is just miraculous. You love that. You live for that. Meredith was one of those pitchers that did that. It is a fun game to catch when everything you are calling is working. It is working for them, it is working for you. It is just out after out after out. Especially when you are facing players like Shellie Robinson. She is coming up to bat, you have a short porch here, and she was getting ground outs. That game was one of my favorites to catch.

GH: What has it meant to you to have your family support you and come to all the games over the past four years.
JG: It has been amazing. It is so funny looking back at your senior year in high school and thinking you want to go so far away. Then realizing you are going to Stetson which is only an hour away. These four years, you ride the highs and the lows with them. They are there for you no matter what. You come out of a game, and just to be able to have them there. Clearly your team is your family. Coach B and Coach JJ they act as your second mom, but there is nothing like having your mom and your dad there to pick you up, and to ride the highs with you. It is huge to have them here.

GH: Has your brother been able to come to many games?
JG: He has been able to come to a few. My first two years, he was playing ball, so that kind of stunk, but he is like my second coach, too. He can sometimes communicate things that my dad can't, so, it is great to be able to have him to come to a few. And to bring my nephew, he brings a smile to my face all the time, too.