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‘Joy just took over’
Poland sophomore Erin Gabriel was one of 17 players selected to the 2010-11 USA Softball Junior Women’s National team.
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Poland's Erin Gabriel makes a play on the ball as (23) Jenna Modic keeps her eye on the play.
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Poland pitcher Erin Gabriel
By TOM WILLIAMS
POLAND
One of Poland High sophomore Erin Gabriel’s dreams was to someday wear a jersey with USA on the front.
Tuesday, that dream became reality when Gabriel was one of 17 softball players selected to the 2010-11 USA Softball Junior Women’s National Team sponsored by the Amateur Softball Association of America.
“Joy just took over,” said Gabriel of her reaction after her high school coach, Reid Lamport, called her with the news he had received in a text from a University of Washington coach.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize the significance of this — there never has been a girl from the state in Ohio who has made this national team,” Lamport said. “I’m elated and just so excited for her.
“From a coaching perspective, they have compiled the 17 best high school players in the country and one of ours is on that team,” Lamport said. “That is tremendously exciting.”
The National Team’s first tournament will be the III Pan American Softball Championship (18-and-under) from Aug. 6-15, in Bogota, Colombia. That event serves as a qualifier for the International Softball Federation (ISF) IX Jr. Women’s World Championship (19-and-under), that will be from Dec. 6-17, 2011, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Five days after Poland’s season ended with a 1-0 loss to Hebron Lakewood in the Division II state championship game, Gabriel flew to Los Angeles with her cousin, Christine Kelly, for the tryout. Her parents, George and Lori, remained in Ohio for her brother Sean’s graduation.
She was one of 42 high school players age 18 and younger invited to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. Four games were played last Friday and Saturday. Gabriel and the other seven pitchers were restricted to one game per day, with a maximum of 20 batters.
“It was definitely a hard decision for me because I really wanted to see him getting his diploma,” Gabriel said. “I wanted to come home early but I knew if I missed Saturday that I wouldn’t have a chance to be on the team. So it definitely was a hard decision ... I’m just glad he understood.”
Gabriel, who is recovering from a stress fracture on her pitching arm, said she thought she did OK.
“The second day, I think I did better than my first,” Gabriel said. “All those girls out there, they were just great. I’d never seen talent like that before.”
Gabriel said she believes she was the only sophomore in the camp and there was one freshman.
“It was mainly older kids ... players going to be college freshmen,” Gabriel said. “One of the pitchers is going to Washington, one is going to Arizona State, another one is going to Arizona,” Gabriel said. “It was a lot of talent, it was good motivation to [remind] me that I need keep taking my game to the next level.”
Gabriel said she wasn’t intimidated.
“It was actually a lot of fun to play at that level and have that experience,” Gabriel said.
University of Tennessee coach Ralph Weekly, who was among the coaches helping to select the team, told Lamport that “the only thing they took into consideration was her age because she’s 16. There wasn’t a question about her talent.”
Lamport said the selection committee didn’t look at high school statistics but made their decisions based on what they saw at the tryout.
The most exciting part of the trip was the return home on Sunday when their airplane made an emergency stop in Cincinnati.
“They really didn’t tell us [anything], they just said we had to make a stop, something might be wrong with the plane,” Gabriel said. “They didn’t tell us it was that serious.
“So when we stopped, there were fire trucks and cars [on the runway],” Gabriel said. “Then we realized that the electric [system] was failing.”
Her next trip should be a bit calmer. Lamport said Gabriel has been invited to Ashland today where the USA Softball Women’s National Team is playing an exhibition game.
“They want to introduce her to the crowd as Ohio’s first player in the program,” Lamport said.
In a conversation with Gabriel’s travel coach, Valley Extreme’s Phil White, Lamport used the word unbelievable.
“Phil said, ‘No, it isn’t — it’s credit to how hard she works and her ability,’ ” Lamport said. “He’s right.”