Meet Laura Rychlewski, a first/second base player for the ‘One Hit Wonders’ of the Taunton (Somerset) league, who is exploring how she can share her skills learnt throughout her degree and support Rounders England with her data and insight knowledge.
My first memory of playing Rounders is at school, my best friend Jo and I were something of a dream team on back stop and first base. But then after school I didn’t play again for years until one sunny Thursday evening I popped down to a school playing field in Taunton to watch some friends play. What I didn’t realise was how big the Rounders scene was in Taunton…. After a couple of weeks playing for any team that would have me (hence the unfortunate nickname ‘floater’) my friends work team, the ‘One Hit Wonders’ took me in as an honorary team member and now they can’t get rid of me, even when I now live in Bristol. So really it was complete luck that I fell back into rounders.
Because of rounders though I’d definitely say I’ve discovered my competitive rounders spirit from school and it’s kick started my love of team sports, this year I joined a hockey team so I could get my team sport fix over the winter months.
I first heard about Rounders England when I was given the opportunity to be part of the representative Taunton ladies team against the Rounders England teams at the Somerset Rounders festival. Such an awesome day to be part of and fingers crossed we’ve had amazing weather the two years I’ve played.
I was scrolling through my Facebook feeds one evening when I noticed the Rounders England post about the new appointments to the Board. I clicked on the link as I knew Georgina Crossman, one of the people who’d been appointed (high five). Then I read down and was really interested and excited to read more about Natalie Ward’s appointment as an Independent Director, mainly because I spotted the words data and insight (geeky I know). It got me thinking about how I could share my skills I’d learnt throughout my degree and work with Rounders England to support and champion the sport. Plus my dream job would always involve sport, so at a personal level what better way to gain experience and knowledge than volunteering my time for a National Governing Body.
So I pinged off an email to the enquiries inbox hoping that it would get to the right person and was really excited to hear back from Hannah Holland, Marketing Head.
Laura and Hannah are currently discussing a future project and Laura is “looking forward to hearing what Rounders England has in mind and can’t wait to get started!”
