Northwestern University Athletics
Meet the First-Years: Emma Bartz
1/31/2017 11:59:00 AM | Softball
Northwestern Softball welcomes three first-year student-athletes to the family this season, which starts February 10 in Tucson, Arizona. We will introduce you to each one this week, beginning with outfielder Emma Bartz from Mundelein, Illinois!
Emma Bartz loves competition. Maybe it comes from growing up as the second of four siblings in the Chicagoland area, but regardless of the origins, Bartz brings that fire to everything she does.
"I don't really like things that aren't super competitive," Bartz says. "When you are involved in something, it shouldn't just be an aspect of your life where you kind of half do it. It should be a part of who you are 100 percent of the time."Bartz is a Northwestern Wildcat 100 percent of the time, and has been for a long time. Her dad, Keith, is an NU fan who graduated from the Kellogg School of Management. Now the Chicagoland native has gone from attending games at Sharon J. Drysdale Field to being a member of Chicago's Big Ten Team.
"I love everything that Northwestern stands for, being an athlete on and off the field, and with academics being an important part of who you are," Bartz says.
Family is an important part of who Bartz is as well, aiding in her decision to remain close to home for college. Bartz's older sister attends Loyola (Chicago), and she has two younger brothers, 14 and 16, who are in high school.
Bartz got her competitive beginnings in athletics because of that family. She started softball around the fifth grade after always being at the fields for her brothers' baseball games, but before that she and her sister had a different pursuit:
"I was a cheerleader for a long time," Bartz says. "Competitive cheer. It worked muscles I didn't really use in softball."In part because of that diverse training, Bartz now boasts significant speed as her biggest weapon on the softball diamond. Off the diamond, Bartz is equally diverse in her interests. She and her mom, Jean, share an interest in art, creating "really big" Decoupage pieces they combine with painting.
In just her second quarter of work at Northwestern, Bartz has already identified a course of study that interests her: political science and a legal studies minor. Though she has no idea yet what she would do with the degree ("Hopefully go to law school?"), she's already all-in.
"I like to jump into things to see if I like it," Bartz says. "If you just dip your toe into things, you don't get a good feel for how it really is."
Being all-in and ever-present on multiple fronts with a competitive fire that clearly burns white-hot might present a challenge for some, but not for Bartz. Her approach already seems tailor-made for the college experience.
"I have an outlook where I'm going to go out and get better everyday. If I spend time complaining about something, then that's a waste of time. For me, being happy is more of a choice."BARTZ FILE
HOMETOWN: Mundelein, Ill.
FAMILY FACT: One of four siblings
SPORT OTHER THAN SOFTBALL: Competitive Cheer
HOBBY: Decoupage
INTENDED MAJOR: Political Science
MUSIC: Rap and Country
MOVIES: Classics. Alfred Hitchcock, John Hughes.
QUOTABLE: "I don't really like things that aren't super competitive."
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