When Jen Nichols began her Penn softball career, she was one of five freshmen on the team.
A year later, she was one of four sophomores.
By her junior year, Nichols and Meghan Cowen were the only members of that class on the roster, and that was the case again when this season began.
Then Cowen left the team last month, which meant that Nichols was the only one from the class left on Senior Day this past Sunday at Warren Field.
Players leaving teams is not a new phenomenon. This is especially true in Ivy League sports, where in an effort to compensate for a lack of scholarships -- or, on some occasions, talent -- coaches recruit as many players as possible.
Most of the time, it is probably taken for granted that a player will last all four years of his or her collegiate career. Sometimes, though, making it that far is an act of survival.
Considering the trials and tribulations Penn softball has endured in recent years, Nichols almost surely falls in the latter category.
After all, the program has not recorded a winning season since 1984 -- two coaches ago, and before many of the current players were born.
"We don't have the scholarships, and kids can just walk in the office at any time and pack it in," coach Leslie King said. "It takes a special person to commit -- they have to have a love of the game and a high level of commitment to stick it out for four years."
Nichols is well aware of all of this.
"Losing makes it that much more difficult," she said. "I just like playing so much that I've been able to stick with it."
Nichols has more than simply stuck with it. She has played at least 30 games in each of her seasons at Penn and has started at least 20 games each year.
That she played so many games is even more remarkable, given the torn anterior cruciate ligament she suffered in the last week of her summer vacation in 2004.
The normal recovery time for an ACL tear is six months, which would have lasted until the heart of the softball season in March.
Nichols, however, came back in four. It helped that she was able to spend winter break in her hometown of Cooper City, Fla., where she took full advantage of the warm weather for her workouts.
"I had a short-term goal, so I think that's what helped me get through the rehab," Nichols said. "I really wanted to get on the field when the season started."
That goal was achieved, and then some.
"She was kicking our butts," sophomore second baseman Annie Kinsey said.
The time will soon come, though, when Nichols isn't around for the workouts, the batting practice and the between-inning huddles.
She can already see what's coming just a few weeks from now, when she collects her Penn diploma and moves on to the rest of her life.
Her father, Greg, can as well, and acknowledged that "for all these girls, once they graduate, there's no more softball."
Then again, the game Jen has played since she was five might still be with her.
"At all my job interviews lately, I've been talking about softball," she said.
Sure, it's cliched to talk about playing for the love of the game. But there are plenty of athletes at Penn who work as hard at their sports as the basketball and football players do, yet receive a fraction of the attention.
That should never lessen their accomplishments, though.
Jonathan Tannenwald is a senior urban studies major from Washington, D.C. His e-mail address is jtannenw@sas.upenn.edu.
