Full days are no surprise to many athletes who are dedicated to their craft. But for sophomore tournaments Anna Esper and her softball teammates, these full day tournaments can go far late into the night.

This was especially the case for their recent tournament, “The Valentines’ Day 50,” from February 12-14.

“These tournaments are usually 50 hours,” Esper said. “Not 50 hours total, 50 hours straight. So sometimes we get scheduled to play during the day, but often, we also get scheduled to play during the night. Like, way late.”

How late exactly?

“The latest we played in this specific tournament was 2:50 a.m.,” Esper said. “That was the beginning of bracket play too. I know some people who played all through the day, and all through the night, then all of the next morning too. Some teams probably didn’t get any sleep for the two days straight.”

Esper said the long nights impact the team chemistry.

“It’s not every day we go out and play at times like 1:50 a.m. and 2:50 a.m.,” Esper stated. “I guess really everyone working together to have a positive attitude had quite the effect on all of our morale throughout the long days and nights. It was hard but I think we all came to a point where we were playing for more than just ourselves, but for the team.”

Finally, Esper concludes with some memories from the tournament.

“The tournament is in Ohio, so there’s not much to do but just chill out and talk with each other when we don’t have a game. So some of my favorite memories come from the late nights when we were all on energy drinks just trying to stay awake and listening to music together in our rare free hours.”