University High School fastpitch team looks to bright season ahead
Jon Schuh was a happy man when the first day of spring turnouts came around for his University High fastpitch softball team.
The weather had cooperated: It was unseasonably warm and the outdoor fields were groomed to as close as you can get to perfection as the first week of March allows.
“It was so great to get the girls outside and see what they could do,” Schuh said. “It’s so hard to put together a team when you’re indoors for the first 10 practices. Some things you can simulate inside, but there are other things you just have to be outside to do.”
Now in his 16th season as the coach of the Titans in both slow and fastpitch softball, Schuh has practice routines worked out. His teams get as much or more out of a practice session than anyone, starting with daily attention to the fundamentals of the game – a session the team gets in even on game days.
“We have some older girls and they do a good job helping our younger players and teaching them the way we do things. They know what it was like for them when they first got here and they like to help,” he said. “We go over everything every day and we keep working on the fundamentals. We’ve tweaked things over the years, got rid of things that weren’t working and stuck with the things that worked and adapted them as we went along.”
Schuh and former Shadle Park coach George Lynn were inducted into the Washington State Coaches Association Softball Hall of Fame last month.
In his first 15 seasons as the Titans coach, he’s taken the team to the state fastpitch tournament 11 times and won the Class 4A title in 2003. He enters the fastpitch season with a record of 333 wins, 106 losses. In all, U-Hi under Schuh has won five Greater Spokane League championships and six district titles.
His slowpitch teams are 158-8.
The trouble with getting voted into a hall of fame is that it brings with it an implication that you’re getting old.
“It was a nice honor and it was really good to go in together with George,” Schuh said. “You know what? I don’t feel old at all. I guess that’s what comes with coaching young kids for so long.”
This year the Titans will be in the hunt for the coach’s 12th league title.
To get there, the team will rely on strength up the middle, starting with returning All-GSL first-team pitcher Alex Douglass. Kirsten Angstrom, the first-team All-GSL second baseman a year ago slides to shortstop and fellow first-teamer Rachel Johnson patrols center field. First-team pick Brooklynn Tacke anchors the infield at third base.
With that foundation are some talented freshmen. Gracee Dwyer and Sierra Apodaca figure to round out the infield. Junior Lexi Ivankovich takes over behind the dish.
“Lexi hasn’t played fastpitch for a while so she doesn’t have a lot of recent experience to draw on,” Schuh said. “But she’s learning and she’s going to do fine.
“What’s really good for us is that I have a really good freshman class and most of them are going to play JV this year. And I think we have probably the best JV squad we’ve ever had here.”
Schuh said he’s kept only a dozen players on his varsity where in years past he’s carried as many as 15. In part, that decision was predicated on the depth and strength of the U-Hi junior varsity.
“That’s the thing about this game,” he said. “You have to play if you want to get better. I can always bring up one or two or three girls for a practice when the JV isn’t playing a game. That’s not a problem.”
Rainy weather threatened the season opener Tuesday at Gonzaga Prep, but the forecast was for a return to the sunshine and warm temperatures as the GSL season gets underway. The team should have five league games under their belt by the time spring break hits week after next.