Attending an Ole Miss Baseball game might go something like this: you start by finding a seat in the student section and grabbing a hotdog. If the game is going the Rebels’ way, embrace the beer showers and hopefully leave with the team having won. While everyone else is enjoying the game from the seats of the stadium, a group of ladies sit on the sidelines, spending the game completing various tasks for the Ole Miss Baseball team. These are the Diamond Girls.
Diamond Girls attend games with the objective of making them run as smoothly as possible. Some of their responsibilities include locating foul balls, handing bats to players and passing out flyers to fans.
Bella Scutti, a senior integrated marketing communications major from Pea Ridge, Ark., is currently serving her second season as a Diamond Girl. She shared that her experience with the group has been a fruitful one and feels that the position is service-oriented towards the baseball team — something she truly admires.
“It’s a cool way to get to contribute to Ole Miss Athletics on another level and kind of have a more personalized experience with it,” Scutti said.
She first took the position during her sophomore year, but had to step away during her junior year due to her getting accepted into a study at sea program. During Scutti’s time abroad, where she visited 11 countries in four months, she hosted a vlog series called “Scutti at Sea.” The series went live across university social media platforms, as Scutti is a social media ambassador for the University of Mississippi.
“I had mentioned to my bosses that I was going to be gone for the spring semester because I was studying abroad, and they were just very interested in that,” Scutti said. “They wanted to do something with that for social media, and so they had me do ‘Scutti at Sea.’”
With every new year, every single Diamond Girl has to re-apply to stay in the position; Scutti was no exception. Although she was successful in both her sophomore and senior year attempts, she shares that she initially was rejected from the Diamond Girls.
“I actually tried out my freshman year and didn’t get it. I made it to the third round, but didn’t get Diamond Girls. It was something I was very passionate about and (I) really wanted to do it, so I tried again my sophomore year…,” Scutti said.
But none of it would have come true if it were not for a beacon from the Diamond Girl lineage inspiring Scutti to apply in the first place: her mom.
“My mom was actually a Diamond Girl when she was here, so that’s how I heard about it initially. She’s still friends with some of the Diamond Girls that she was with to this day,” Scutti said.
The community that Scutti’s mom referenced is reflected in her daughter’s experience. Scutti shared that joining a committee within Diamond Girls helped her to connect more so with her peers. Forty-five active Diamond Girls make up these committees, with around 12 working each game for the baseball season.
Applications for Diamond Girls will open up again in the fall. Scutti encourages anyone interested to apply. She echoed her experience with not being selected her freshman year, and encouraged the potential members who experience rejection not to not take it to heart.
“A big piece of encouragement is even if you don’t get it freshman year, try again,” Scutti said. “I can attest to that myself. I know (this) is the case for many people, so don’t be discouraged if you go through and don’t get it the first time because chances are you could get it the next.”
