As we grow older, certain events signal rites of passage that impact our lives. Things like a first crush,  and the first time behind the wheel of a car are both signs that we’re growing older – both symbols of taking life by the horns.

One Friday in January, eight Elon University freshman softball players stepped into a makeshift photo booth in the media relations office tucked away in Alumni Gym for their first headshots as college athletes. With makeup containers passing hands and hairstyles bearing resemblance to a New York fashion shoot, the athletes made their way, one by one, onto a stool, modeled for the camera and grinned an ear-to-ear smile —frozen in the moment of another rite of passage.

“I’m so pumped,” Charyssa Parent, an outfielder from Mechanicsville, Va., said jokingly. “This is how we go to practice. We look like this every day.”

The group comes from all over — from down the street in Siler City to across the country in Villa Park, Calif.  with one goal in mind: to hepl the Phoenix get back to the level of the 2010 team that won the Southern Conference Tournament and appeared in the NCAA Regionals for the first time in school history.

“They want to be winners and that’s what we want,”  said interim coach Kathy Bocock.

If anybody needs a blueprint of how to succeed immediately, they need not look far for inspiration. Sophomore Carleigh Nester came into last season a raw freshman from Kernersville just trying to make whatever impact she could. She ended the year as the team’s leader in slugging percentage (.585), batting average (.377), runs (36) and doubles (16).

“She’s a very good role model for all of us to follow,” said freshman Grace Eng, a third baseman and outfielder from Middletown, R.I. “She never gives up.  She’s always hustling.  She works on her skills on and off the field.  She’s putting in the time and effort that a Division I player should put in.”

The Phoenix began preparation for its season with a fall schedule against seven schools scattered throughout the Southeast. After facing the likes of the University of North Carolina, Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee, the first-year players have gotten their first little taste of college competition.

“(The freshmen) are doing a great job of filling their roles and what we’re asking them to do right now,” Bocock said.  “It’s a new place for all of them.”

With such a large bunch of newcomers, the freshmen have had to find creative ways to bond together. But as they’ve learned, bonding doesn’t have to just be with teammates of the same class.

“We’re not treated as freshmen on this team,” said Sarah Little, a first baseman from Villa Park, Calif. “We’re treated as a family. We’re all one group, one age.  Especially since there’s so many of us, you can’t ostracize eight of us.”

The regular season begins Feb. 10 against Liberty University. But for these eight women, it’s just another rite of passage.