The buzzwords around the Ithaca College softball team for the last three years have been the same: national championship.

For three years there’s been more national championship chatter in the Bombers’ locker room than hope talk on the Obama campaign trail.

And it seems appropriate for a team that is 106–30 in those three seasons, a team that has been to the College World Series two out of the past three years.  

What else would last year’s national preseason No. 1 team be thinking about?

Puppies and bubble gum? I don’t think so.  

 “Always it’s on our minds,” said senior All-Conference shortstop Erica Cutspec.

And yet, for three straight years the Bombers have lost their last game. Three years in a row, those national championship dreams have remained exactly that — dreams.

Enter 2008. Six seniors with a different agenda, seniors who have changed the talking points of the preseason.  

“We’re not looking at the end result this year as much as how to get there,” said senior All-American pitcher Nicole Cade.

It’s a direct reference to the expectations that have followed them around for three years, like the rain cloud above Charlie Brown. Not that they’d admit to the burden.

“It’s good to have high expectations,” said the Bombers’ other stud pitcher, senior Carly Myers.

In some ways it’s a compliment, but it’s the same kind of pressure that turned the 18–0 Patriots into an 18–1 team. Sky-high expectations can weigh more than an inspirational goal.

“The biggest thing we can do is focus on the process and getting better every day in the here and now,” Cade said.

After all, you can talk all you want, but you can’t win a national championship in February.

So the 2008 Bombers are revamped psychologically and rededicated to something new. That is taking things lighter, creating a team with a less goal-oriented mindset and learning to enjoy each other without the championship blinders.

“Part of the process is about having fun,” Cade said. “We’re making an effort that maybe wasn’t as much a part of the focus in the past.”

But don’t be fooled completely by the process talk. Everyone on the team knows exactly where they want the process to lead.

“We know where we want to be at the end of the season,” Cutspec said.

They just won’t be talking about it until they get there.