My story of a girl and her passion
My story of a girl and her passion.
My story is the story of a little girl, her Dad and finding a passion. Katie, the girl of our story, was all girl and in her early years did not have a interest in playing “ballâ€. She played school and little girl games with the Williamsburg girls. Suddenly at the age of six she decided it might be better to play ball than just get dragged to her older brother’s ball games, besides she likes the cheers from her cousin’s team. There was a little doggie sitting on the fence,
Rooting for the other team ‘cause has no sense.
Katie developed as a player and enjoyed playing the game through her eleven year-old year. She, under the guidance of her Coach Don Fitch, learned all aspects of the game of softball. By the time she was ten, she had played every position on the field and was gravitating toward the positions of activity; pitching and catching. The eleven year-old year was the “changing†experience. Katie had a very successful season and failed to make the all-star team. She felt that she earned to be on that team and was determined to not let that happen again. We spent the rest of that summer working father-daughter on improving her softball skills. We worked on pitching, catching, throwing, and individual position practice. The passion had started.
Katie’s twelve year-old year was a huge success. Her regular team was league champions and they also won the Les Ghiz Tournament as the best regular season team in the whole district. Katie not only was selected as a all-star, but was a leader and vital part of the team. This team won the District, West Virginia State, and Division Four of the Southern Region in North Carolina. The team was the first little league team from the state of West Virginia to play in the Southern Regional in Waco, Texas. Katie continued to work and improve and was one of only two thirteen year-olds to play in Divisional play again the next year for her Senior League (13-15) all-star team and also played all-stars her 14 year-old year.The fifteen year-old season was long and wild. Katie started the season off playing as a freshman for Huntington St. Joseph High School and started her career with a bang. Early in her very first game, she walked, stole second, third and home for the first and only run of the game. She then made a diving catch in the fifth inning to preserve the shutout and had a nice article written about her performance in the Herald-Dispatch. Katie pitched, caught, played short, second, and centerfield during the season. As soon as the high school season was over she started back with her old Senior League team and played on a traveling team, Storm, on the weekends. Katie’s summer season ended with back-to-back State runner-ups in Senior League and ASA ball. Katie’s high school career at St. Joe was very special. She became the first St. Joe softball player to make the West Virginia High School All-State team her sophomore season and then proceeded to make it three years in a row. She also was one of only two Single A players to be selected to play in the West Virginia North-South High School All-star game and the first ever from St. Joe. Her final triumph was leading St. Joseph to the West Virginia State High School Softball Tournament, its first visit ever, as a senior. She played the six-time defending champions the first game and it was a spectacular game. Katie caught the first 14 innings of this marathon and threw the first two runners out that tried to steal a base. After 14 innings you must replace your pitcher and our only option was to have Katie pitch. The game was lost 1-0 in fifteen and was the highlight of the tournament. Later that day Katie had to pitch another game and this ended her high school career. She received one more honor for her performance that week; she was selected to the State Tournament All-Tournament team. Katie’s story really is not about her accomplishments, but rather her passion for the game. She loved the game. She loved the dirt, sand, mud, and tears that came out of this passion. Her passion pushed her to excel and pushed her to truly “learn†the game of softball. She was the smartest softball player I ever saw and she knew exactly where ever single player on the field was to be in every single situation. She developed and used every bit of talent that was given to her to be the best softball player she could be. This was her passion that became the passion of the family.
