Play it again, graduates

So. Md. has 7 in softball all-star game

Friday, July 14, 2006

The game, which will feature 32 of the best players in the state, will form two teams and the high school players will square off one last time when the first pitch is thrown at 7 p.m.

‘‘I would hope a game, which is really a showcase of the best seniors in the state, would be a thrill to these kids,” said Huntingtown coach Mike Johnson, who will coach the Gold team and is a member of the game’s selection committee. ‘‘It’s a thrill being around these kids because of their maturity and what they’ve done over their high school careers is amazing. This [game] is a culmination of that and what I hope is just a time where they go out and enjoy one last chance of high school ball amongst their peers before they get ready for the next step.”

Seven Southern Maryland players, including five from Calvert County, were selected to play in this year’s game. On the Gold team will be Huntingtown teammates Alex Sita and Nicole Agambar and Patuxent pitcher Ashley Frederick. Pulling on the Red jerseys Tuesday night will be Lindsay Wood of Northern, Kierstynn Romero of Calvert, Karen Elder of McDonough and Tricia Johnson of St. Mary’s Ryken.

‘‘I couldn’t even have dreamed to have been selected to play at this level,” said Johnson, who began playing fast-pitch softball in high school and hopes to earn a spot on McDaniel College’s softball team as a walk-on. ‘‘I just love to play the game so it should be a lot of fun.”

‘‘It’s definitely an honor and I’m really excited,” said Frederick, who will attend Coastal Carolina University on a softball scholarship. ‘‘It’ll be a little bit emotional but also a lot of fun.”

Elder, who will continue her softball career at West Virginia Wesleyan College in the fall, said it’s an honor to be selected to play.

‘‘It means a lot to me, actually, because there’s a lot of great players to come out of Maryland in general,” Elder said.

Coaches can nominate their players or those from other teams. The selection committee received approximately 60 applications for this year’s game. That list, which included players from both public and private schools, was then whittled down to 32 players. A draft was then held to form the two squads. The first game was played in 1997. This is the first year it will not be played at Prince George’s Community College.

Though Johnson is the official Gold team coach, he said that title is a bit deceiving.

‘‘Coaching is really a misnomer in this game; it’s more like I’m a watcher,” he said. ‘‘We just let the kids go out and play because they’ve played for four years. They’re some of the best that have played at their position so we don’t try to coach them. We [coaches] just try to manage the game as it goes along.”

Besides the fact that the game is usually entertaining, the last night as high school softball players adds a twist that opposing players are sometimes on the same team. Elder, who played for McDonough, will find herself sitting in the dugout with former SMAC foes Wood and Romero.

‘‘The all-star game is supposed to be fun so I’ll just go out and have fun,” Elder said. ‘‘But it will be a little strange playing with them.”

‘‘They’ve always been good competitors and it’ll be nice to play with some of the talent from SMAC,” said Frederick, who will call county rivals Sita and Agambar teammates for one night. ‘‘But it will be a little strange, though.”

In last year’s game, Huntingtown senior Brittany Norton was on the Red team while Hurricanes teammate Kelli Seger took to the field for the Gold squad. Seger even helped her Gold pitcher throw to her familiar friend. All in good fun, Norton even refused to acknowledge her teammate when Seger made it to first base and blamed Johnson for her hitting struggles.

But Seger, who is now at Mount St. Mary’s University, had the last laugh against Norton when her two-run double helped her team secure a 5-1 win. Seger was named her team’s co-most valuable player of the game.

Johnson said the chance to for players to play alongside others they never expected to is an experience in itself.

‘‘It’s different but at the same time I think as a high school coach it’s an opportunity that you cherish,” he said. ‘‘A perfect example would be me and Ashley where I have a chance to coach someone we played against during the regular season. It’s a thrill having a chance to finally have someone you’ve gone against three or four years on your bench with you that you can kid and joke around with. You can see them smile instead of seeing them frown at you from across the field.”

E-mail Michael Reid at mreid@somdnews.com.