SANDY — Vaughn Alvey doesn't measure his team's success in wins and losses.
It's a much more elusive measuring stick, and he uses it everyday — not just game days.
"I don't believe all the time the best teams win," he said. "Usually state championships are lost. It's the pressure. We want to make them (the players) as good as we can make them. We get in trouble any time we set a goal to win this or win that. That tends to become the focus instead of improving our game."
Ask any Alta softball player what her goal is for any game or tournament, and she'll say simple and quick, "get better."
Team mottoes, catch phrases and inspirational ideas fly around this team's practices just as often as softballs do. As Alvey watches his football helmet-wearing players run a concentration drill in the gymnasium due to the snow, he said it isn't having a winning team that makes him feel like he's accomplished something at the end of the season.
"If you're going to make me really fulfilled, it would be that all seven seniors get scholarships and go on to play with their education paid for," he said.
The players wear the helmets to help with confidence, strengthen their necks and force them to focus, he said. Yet that's not the only thing this team does that might seem a bit unconventional.
"I've seen things here, I've never seen done at practices before," said assistant coach Fred Rose, who's coached both baseball and softball. But it isn't their athletic prowess or intelligent play that impresses the veteran coach the most.
Fighting diabetes, he is wheelchair bound for the first spring in his life.
But this doesn't seem to matter to the teenage girls he helps without pay. They just help him and carry his chair.
"They can't help me enough," he said. "They just consider me another one of the team. It's amazing with capital letters."
This year's Alta team is ranked No. 1 by opposing coaches in the region (all except one), and many teams named the Hawks as the best softball team in the state. Even more impressive, the team was ranked No. 21 in the nation by Fox Sports. But all of this doesn't seem to matter to Alvey or his teenage players.
"Rankings don't mean anything," said pitcher Jenna Merchant. Adds fellow pitcher Niki Anderson, "We still have to perform to win."
The pitchers are spending a snowy afternoon in front of a mirror in the school's dance room. They throw air and analyze their form. Left on their own, many young girls might find it hard to concentrate, but these girls focus hard on the imaginary ball and batter — they are sweating.
"It's nice to get a chance to see ourselves," said pitcher Tasha Counsell. Without the mirrors, "it's harder to know what you're doing wrong." They look at each other and talk about "assessing and adjusting."
Hey, check out her "push-pull. Awesome." And then one says, "balance is a big thing for us this year." No boy talk, no homework worries. All softball, all business.
"Complacency is not an Alta thing," Merchant says as she leaves the dance room and heads to the gymnasium. Alvey rounds up the team for a little group hug.
Then they start acting like teenage girls. Reminding each other of singing on buses, jumping in lakes and winning games.
The best thing about playing for a team with a tradition of winning?
"You can be yourself," one says with a laugh.
"We're pals," adds another.
And they say what they're learning isn't just how to hit, run and catch.
"It teaches us how to get along with other people, how to work hard, how to be on time," one says. Several girls laugh at the last lesson and make jokes about still struggling with the clock.
They have dreams ranging from massage therapy to brain surgery, but right now all they want to do is play hard and win games. They have mottoes galore, but two are actual goals: "There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent, nor hinder, nor control the firm resolve of a determined soul," they recite on cue.
And then, in southern drawl, "Everybody helps everybody."
Alvey is constantly watching and analyzing his team's play in hopes it will lead to greater successes off the field.
"I hope they realize their potential out of softball," Alvey said. "With each success, they can build on that and have all their dreams come true. If they see short-term goals (realized) through hard work, then they'll know dreams can come true the same way."