A group of girls at Alto Park got the chance of a lifetime this week as they came out for a three-day softball camp put on by this year’s NAIA National Champion Shorter University Lady Hawks.

Jess Sanders, assistant coach for the team, said she had current and former players — many of whom were part of this past season’s first and only NAIA national title team — helping out with this week’s camp, giving young girls a chance to learn from some of the best players currently in the game.

“Being a college softball camp, you get to see other college kids,” said Sanders. “They see where they’re at and maybe they (campers) want to strive to be a college player as well. So that’s kind of what I’m hoping they get out of this.”

With 21 girls at the camp this week varying in ages, Sanders said the camp strived to work on the fundamentals of the game with the campers, and even allowed them a final day of scrimmage with players like Kandace Bruno, Amanda Dailey and Brooke Bryan.

But the most important thing for Sanders is not that the girls came away with just knowledge of techniques and getting to see some of the National Champions perform in a home-run derby.

She hopes they come away with a sense of what the game of softball is really about: having fun.

“That’s first and foremost,” she said. “You’ve got to have fun when you play the game of softball.

“You’ve got to have fun to play anything.”