Former U.S. Olympic softball player Leah O'Brien-Amico works on a groundball drill with a group of young players at Butler High School Sunday. O'Brien-Amico was in town to conduct a softball skills camp in the Golden Tornado gym.

BUTLER TWP — Leah O'Brien-Amico still holds out hope.

Fervent protests after attempts to remove wrestling from the Olympics got the sport restored.

O'Brien-Amico wants to try and do the same for softball. She was a three-time gold medal winner, playing right field for the United States in the Summer Olympics in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

O'Brien-Amico, who was doing a clinic for 55 youth players at Butler High School Sunday, wants to encourage more opportunities girls to play.

“It's heartbreaking for our sport. We are supportive of the professional league,” O'Brien-Amico said. “We want girls to have more opportunities, but the Olympics is really something that brings the world together. It gives our sport a spotlight like any other. Our main goal is to get it back in the Olympics.”

Softball is currently out of the Olympics for 2016, but efforts are being made to return it for 2020.

O'Brien-Amico, a native of Chino, Calif., conducts about 10 of these clinics per year. She even does a few with her former Olympic teammates.

Several stations were set up around the gymnasium to teach fundamentals, but that wasn't the only thing O'Brien-Amico wanted to be taken away from the event.

“First of all, our game is fun. Hard work will always pay off,” O'Brien-Amico said. “If you put in the work, you will see the benefits. I was never the strongest, never the fastest, never the hardest-throwing pitcher, but I was on three Olympic teams. Our sport takes girls of all shapes and sizes.”

Members of the Butler softball team helped work the clinch. First-year Golden Tornado softball coach Shauna Troup felt everyone benefitted.

“We got a lot of good drills. Some of the drills we've been implementing with our girls, but some of the girls is new,” Troup said. “The diving drills are new.”

O'Brien-Amico said she's amazed at how much the game has changed. Even from when she played at the University of Arizona, where she won three national championships in the late 1990s, she's noticed that coaches tend to recruit earlier now.

She feels increased education about the game has led to big improvement.

“The level of play has risen all across the country. Skills sets are a lot better, coaches are more knowledgeable,” O'Brien-Amico said. “I think that's the biggest thing is the more information out there the better.”