A Deeper Dive: My Thoughts on Bella Norton on Hoosier Heartland Podcast
Written by: Ben Malcomson (@BenMalcomson)
Welcome to a new installment of the deeper dive. Today’s edition covers the recent appearance of Indiana Softball student athlete Bella Norton on Hoosier Heartland Podcast.
Below are some links to watch and/or listen to the show. Warning: I would recommend checking these out before reading on. It does contain spoilers.
Click here to watch the YouTube version.
Click here to listen to the audio-only version. Note: You can find us on various podcast platforms like Apple, Stitcher, etc.
The best way to start this article is touching base again on the “Why?” Why did I choose to start doing these deeper dive articles into our podcast episodes? Truth be told, I go back and listen to these shows myself. Usually, it is because I end up picking up on more information than I remember while doing the show. Multi-tasking is not my greatest strong suit, so if you can imagine managing a podcast – asking questions, following chat, keeping tabs on other platforms and the feedback the fans might provide – can be a bit distracting, but important.
Going back and listening and then writing about it allows me to fully appreciate the time and efforts put in by everyone involved. In turn, we hope it inspires you to listen/watch and maybe learn a lot from these people. You never know, they may inspire you to do greater things. For me, they inspired me to delve back into writing. I want it to mean something. To have a constructive impact on the readers. It is not about money, clicks, etc. It is about gaining something from one another that improves us as fans and as human beings.
This show was no different. Bella Norton joined the long list of Indiana Softball student athletes and coaches that took the time out of their daily lives to be with us for an hour or two to talk about her book of life up to this point. Each of her experiences is a part of a separate chapter throughout her journey that is worth noting.
Much like my previous deep dive, I walk away asking myself the following questions:
What did I learn from speaking with Bella?
What did I grow to understand?
What impact did she leave with me?
What impact did we leave on her?
Now, I would like to take you, the reader, through each question and fill you in on my personal take.
What did I learn from speaking with Bella?
This response can be expansive. We knew a bit about Bella going in through our research of her IUhoosiers.com bio and feedback that we received from her teammates and coaches. We had a nice conversations with her before the show even started. An opportunity to “break the ice” and set the tone. She was welcoming from the time she stepped into the Zoom meeting to the moment we let her go on about her day. We could see and feel her enthusiasm and joy for life and softball before we even started delving into any particular topic. She was all smiles and spoke about how much it meant to her just to have a chance to tell her story. By the time we wrapped up, we felt like we just made a new friend and gained a member of our growing IU family.
What did I grow to understand?
Bella continued the trend of providing viewers and listeners an opportunity to further understand the origin story of THE student athlete – they have lives they live out growing up as a child to their teenage years. She never sugarcoated any topic. She was open, honest, and real about what she experienced. From the daily struggles of balancing life with athletics both as a teen and a college student to the importance of mental health. My respect and appreciation reached a deeper level of meaning to me. I have always viewed them more than just someone who is a part of group that gets told “you have a free ride, so take the criticism I give you, and shut up”. They are human beings just like all of us. It does not matter race, religion, money, what sport you participate in, etc. Bella carries so much emotion that it bleeds out in a beautiful way.
Her Father didn’t make things particularly easy on her. It was zero or 80 mph. You were either at the top of your game or at the bottom of the barrel figuratively speaking. And, that can be a difficult thing to process. Especially, being at a young age trying to maneuver your way through the obstacle’s life throws at you. This is not intended to bash her Father. I do not know him. But, hearing that, I would like to believe he was intending to prepare Bella for not just what sports might do to you but how real the world can eat you up and spit you out without a second thought. Maybe he wanted her to be prepared for it. Maybe he saw it a different way entirely.
It makes me think of why I do not want to have children. Would I be able to teach my child right from wrong? I would like to believe so. Can I handle what the world will throw at my child? No. I do not feel I could. In saying that, it makes me respect those that do have kids. It is a major responsibility taking care of a child. You have a major hand in molding them into who they will become someday. The women in Bella’s life, her siblings, and extended family played a pivotal role in inspiring her to turn negatives into positives. To lead by example. To know what is right and what is wrong. For some of us, we have to commit wrong to understand that we screwed up. Not saying Bella is a perfect human being, but I feel she is going to be someone that inspires others on a deep and powerful level to live and breathe positivity through action and reaction.
What impact did she leave with me?
Some might say wearing your heart on your sleeve can be a blessing and a curse. It can leave you vulnerable to more critical opinions from those who choose not to educate themselves on the person they are laying judgement upon. On the latter end, I feel it can make a profound impact on others around you. Let me give an example:
If Bella ALWAYS were to stay stone-faced and thick skinned, would her family, friends, coaches, and teammates ever really know what is going on in her psyche? To me, it is not about flooding those around you with every emotion you feel through words and actions at every waking moment, it is about finding the right balance and the critical time to present to those you trust what you are feeling and thinking. You do not tell everyone how you feel, do you? You tell those you trust. That can be applied to on or off the field of play.
Coming from someone that wears their heart on their sleeve every day of the week, this hits home to me. I am someone, much like many others, who has dealt with false and/or unfair judgement. It hits me at my core as a human being. She has my unwavering respect for being open to speak on it.
One of the most important pieces of this conversation was her talking about the relationship between the pitcher and catcher. It goes beyond what happens from the mound to the plate. It starts on a fundamental level. Not pitching and catching fundamentals. Relationship fundamentals. Building that strong connection off the field directly affects the communication and performance of what happens on it.
Bella understands that. She wants to know her pitchers – she wouldn’t even call them that. She calls them her friends, her sisters, etc. Bella knows when and how to talk to them. And, if she doesn’t YET, she makes it her mission to figure that out through, again, the fundamentals of being a damn good human being – an open mind and heart, communication, and empathy.
What impact did we leave on her?
Honestly, I am going with my gut and heart here. I do not know 100% sure what Bella took from the experience on the show. She spoke about how much she enjoyed it and would be willing to come back and reunite again. We felt she genuinely and wholeheartedly meant that. It makes us excited to see what the future holds with her a part of our lives.
In my opinion, I feel that the experience on this episode was therapeutic and refreshing for her. I feel it helped her to open up on this level with people she was only getting to know. Which makes me think that others who took the time to listen, will also feel grateful for that. We took it as a compliment that she felt that comfortable to do so. She walked away seeming primed and ready for the 2021 season and beyond. She has a clear and structured plan ahead. No doubt she will do fantastic things.
In Closing
Friday morning, we had the golden opportunity to speak with a student, an athlete, and a human being. She touched on her life growing up, her high school years, and her time at Indiana up to this point. She made us laugh telling us stories and get emotional hearing others – like the day they found out their 2020 softball season was cancelled – a moment that incapacitated Bella to the point her teammates and others consoled her.
That moment stuck with me.
It wasn’t her showing signs of weakness.
That was Bella showing strength, passion, and pride.
She was overwhelmed. A part of her and her teammates lives was stripped from them by the pandemic.
Bella didn’t cry because of what she lost.
She hurt because of what Katie, Emily, Grayson, Desiree, Gabbi, all of her other teammates, and her coaches lost.
That was powerful in the most positive of ways.
Bella wants to be a coach herself someday. After speaking with her, we could not agree more. She is one of the “glue” women that holds this team together. She was there when the culture wasn’t where it needed to be. She helped usher in that necessary change. Not the success on the field. It was about what mentality it took to achieve what they wanted to do – through conditioning, studies, mental health, support, etc. All of the traits about Bella is what will make her senior season special. It will be the closing of one chapter and the starting of a new one. The one that will eventually have those around her referring to her as Coach Norton.
We cannot wait to speak with Coach Bella someday.
But we are in no rush.
We want to be there in person next season to see Bella and her teammates (our family) – the students, the athletes, and the human beings. We want Bella to kick some ass and leave Indiana having no regrets about what her mind, body, and soul brought to the field and those around her.
Come hell or high water, we will see Bella perform on that field.
The question I want to ask you, the reader, is this – will you be there to join us?
#BetterWithBella #Team48