Chicago Bandits begin 2019 with high expectations for NPF season

Brenna Moss avoids being picked off during a drill at the Bandits stadium in Rosemont, Illinois.

When Brenna Moss was beginning her senior season for Fresno State in 2015, she didn’t know the National Pro Fastpitch league existed.

Her intentions were to go to grad school, get her master’s in sports psychology and enter the “real world.”

“I didn’t really know about professional softball,” Moss said. “They said that teams had interest in me and asked if I wanted to continue playing. I said, ‘Of course, I do!’ I had no idea I could continue doing this. Other than college, I thought there was just the Olympic team.”

Fast-forward to 2019, Moss is beginning her fifth season with the Bandits and is coming off a Player of the Year award-winning season. She tied the league’s single-season hits record with 65, and her 27 stolen bases broke the Bandits’ single-season record.

For three months out of the year, Moss is terrorizing pitchers at the plate and beating out throws to second base. But for the other nine months, she drops the professional athlete title and works in the real world.

Brenna Moss is coming off a standout 2018 season that earned her the NPF’s Player of the Year award.

“It’s been a variety of things,” Moss said. “I was finishing school my first two years, and then I worked for the Bandits for a year. This past season, I substitute taught and coached for my old high school team (North High School in Bakersfield, California). It’s just all stuff that allows us to continue playing in the summertime.”

You’d have a hard time finding many professional male athletes who have to work another job to afford their playing career.

It’s the reality for most professional female athletes.

WNBA players often supplement their salary by signing lucrative contracts to play overseas. Every member of the Chicago Sky played overseas this offseason except for guard Jamierra Faulkner.

It’s a similar story for players in the National Women’s Soccer league. The league minimum has increased to $16,538, but it’s still not enough to support them all year. Sarah Gorden, defender for the Red Stars also works as a model to support herself and her son, Caiden.

In the NPF the average salary is $6,200 and players are with the team seven days a week.

The league was established in 2004 and had eight teams competing. Today, just six teams are competing.

It’s an uphill battle in terms of expansion and growth for the NPF, but with Team USA’s involvement this year, there are high expectations for this season.

The national team will compete in a training camp at the Chicago Bandits facilities beginning June 10 and will wrap their week in Chicago with five exhibition games against the Bandits and the USSSA Pride.

Head coach, Lauren Lappin directs her team through drills during practice at the teams facility in Rosemont, Illinois.

“To have team USA here is a special thing for Rosemont and Chicago,” first-year head coach Lauren Lappin said. “The involvement of the National Team in the NPF, they know that this is where they’re going to get their best preparation. I think this partnership and them coming to do their training camp here, playing NPF teams, it’s for the betterment of the sport. It’s the only way our sport continues to grow like it has.”

Lappin played in the league for five years and spent six years in the national-team system. She was an alternate player on the 2004 team when it won Gold in Athens and was a member of the 2008 team that won Silver in Beijing.

Right-hander Ally Carda is in her second season with the Bandits and fourth season with the NPF. She’s the only member of the Bandits who will be competing for Team USA this summer.

Before signing with the Bandits, she was with the Texas Charge who folded in January of 2018.

Ally Carda takes batting practice. The RHP is the sole member of the Bandits playing for team USA this summer.

“I think this year hopefully it’s going to be different,” Carda said. “There’s a lot more uproar and talk about the league which is always good. I think we all know it’s a challenge, but we’re in it together. We’re trying to grow this league the best way we can.”

The Bandits season begins Thursday, when they play host to the Cleveland Comets in Rosemont.