🥎 Keeping Up With The Freshmen: Tatum Goff
Kansas softball’s 2020 season came to an abrupt end due to the COVID-19 outbreak, leaving an entire team of student-athletes in shock. In this latest series (Keeping Up With The Freshmen), we talk with the 2019-20 freshmen student-athletes to discuss how their first year of college went and what they learned from the experience. 
Freshman Tatum Goff appeared in 15 games for the Jayhawks including 11 starts inside the circle. She finished with a team-high five wins and 43 strikeouts in her first season at Kansas.
Q. How do you think your first year at KU went?
“I thought my first year at KU went a lot better than I was expecting. I thought I did a good job of adjusting quickly to all of the new things being thrown at me.”
Q. What was your favorite moment of the 2019-20 year?
“My favorite moment would be our first tournament. It is one of my favorites because even though it was our first tournament together, our team’s chemistry was through the roof. It was really cool seeing how well we all played together that early in the season.”
Q. What was the biggest change going from a senior in high school to a college freshman?
“The atmosphere of being a student-athlete was the biggest change for me. In high school, it’s cool to be playing a sport, but when you’re in college it’s a totally different world. Your intensity changes when you’re doing things that involve your sport and you’re not just representing yourself; you’re representing your team and school.”
Q. How are you using what you learned this year to prepare for 2020-21?
“I now know all the workouts and the type of condition I’ll need to be in for when we come back, so during this time I will be focusing on preparing myself to be in the best condition for this next year to be able to better help my team.”
Q. What advice do you have for the incoming freshmen to make their transition easier?
“It will get easier. One of my favorite sayings is, ‘This too shall pass.’ I told myself that so many times this last year when I was struggling with classes, workouts, practices and in my personal life. You will feel like you are failing at times, but that is when you know you are almost at a turning point and you need to push just a little bit more.”
Q. What is one thing you wish you would have known prior to starting your freshman year?
“I wish I would have known how to actually cook meals other than scrambled eggs. One of my roommates was a lifesaver when it came to what we were going to eat for supper and I can’t thank her enough!”
