University of Minnesota Athletics
Softball Seniors Close Out Careers
5/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
The stage was set, the Golden Gopher softball seniors had one more time to step out on to the field at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium, and what better opponent that the rival Wisconsin Badgers.
The quintet of seniors could not more different in their backgrounds and how they arrived at Minnesota, but could not be more similar in their experiences and their memories they will take away.
The group includes a five-year member, a three-year member, a two-year member and a pair of new faces that joined just this season.
Heidi Carls is the elder statesman of the group, having spent five years in the maroon and gold. A native of Villard, Minn., she started back in the fall of 2005 learning early that she would be switching positions from catcher, which she had played her entire life, to the outfield where she would have to learn the game all over.
"I had been a catcher since sixth grade, all the way up through high school," Carls said. "And they put me out in the outfield and taught me basically from ground zero how to do everything. It was a total 180, pretty exciting though."
The softball team has had its ups and downs over the last five years, but one constant has been Carls, continually improving year after year. She redshirted that initial spring in 2006, and was sprinkled throughout the starting line-up for the next two seasons, before becoming the everyday left fielder last spring. In her junior season of 2009, she put up career numbers offensively, but bettered them all as a senior this spring.
Joining Carls for the last three seasons has been Tina Watts. A native of nearby northeast Minneapolis, she grew up playing softball and watching the Gophers play. After a short detour to Missouri State, she came back to Minnesota and the Golden Gophers.
She first took the field in 2008, and has spent the last two seasons as a starter, becoming a leader in her final year. "I like to lead more by showing people - lead by example," Watts said. "I sometimes have the tendency to get into myself and really focus, so I lead by example. I know people can see it, and want to do it too."
Chonquita Jones joined the program just last season, while Kim Hanlon and Abby Rehberger each joined the team just this season as seniors. The group makes for a unique blend of backgrounds, personalities and talents.
Rehberger has started every game of the season, while Jones has appeared over 30. Hanlon took four-years off from the game, while playing for the Golden Gophers women's hockey team, winning conference titles and personal accolades along the way.
Each with varied and vast experience, they were tasked with leading a young team in 2010. That team included six freshman, three sophomores and nine total new faces on the roster of 20. Five years on the team or none, the seniors had experience to offer, and as displayed by Hanlon it can all be useful.
"My experience in hockey relates a lot," Hanlon said. "So for me it's been a lot of fun being able to take the younger kids under my wing, and just help them out with the same struggles that I went through when I was a freshman. Just how to deal with the pressure of big time games and being in Big Ten's. It's just like being in the WCHA, I've been to NCAA Tournaments, and so I have a whole range of experience."
The Gophers opened the season with a 2-1 win over Western Illinois in the annual Metrodome Classic, marking just the second time in Carl's five years that she opened a season with a win. Carls went 2-for-2 in the eight-inning opener, knocking in the tying run in the fourth inning. Then when the Gophers' completed the comeback, it was Rehberger coming home for the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
When asked to sum up her season in the maroon and gold, Rehberger had to say "I don't know yet, there is still some time left to figure it out. Just being able to put on my cleats one last year. Just being able to come out and play a game that I love a little bit longer. Being in the maroon and gold is great. The dedication that everybody gives and the dedication that the coaches have to be here every day, and everybody working hard for the same goal. I don't want to be done, and I'm glad I got this one last season."
Watts echoed a similar sentiment, "I know I've made a lot of great friends on this team, and probably more so than in the past years. I think there is just such great chemistry on this team that I'm going to miss it. There is a lot of talent on our team, and I know in the next few years that it's going to be fun to come back and watch for sure."
The idea of team chemistry is a strong one and is nothing new to the seniors. The way Golden Gophers work together was quickly identifiable for Jones, when she first worked out with the team last season.
"When I tried out, I met the coaching staff and the women on the team, and they welcomed me with open arms," Jones said. "When the coaching staff decided to bring me on the team, the decision was easy because I was so impressed by the work ethic and chemistry. I wanted to be a part of Gopher Softball."
That chemistry and work ethic paid off, and this group was able to off the field at Cowles Stadium in the same light as when they opened the season, as winners, having to work overtime to get it. With the Badgers in town for their only match-up, they went 10 innings, winning by the most incredible of ways, overcoming a five-run 10th-inning deficit to do so.
And as for the future careers of her teammates that will return for their sophomore, junior and senior seasons, Carls gave the best she could. "Keep working hard, and keep focusing and it'll happen. It'll happen!"
On the road, the official end to the career of these five seniors is this weekend with one final series with the University of Illinois. The first pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. May 14.
