Tuesday, Jul. 01, 2008

Softball All-American Beattie returns to roots

Bree Beattie’s second trip to the NCAA Div. II national championship softball game with Emporia State University was considerably easier than her first.

Beattie, a 2001 Olathe East graduate, capped a brilliant playing career by helping the Hornets reach the 2006 title contest.

She then got a taste of the coaching life as a graduate assistant the last two seasons working on a master’s degree at ESU.

“It was definitely easier as a coach,” Beattie said. “I think that’s partly because I had been there once before. My senior year, everything seemed so big. There were eight teams in the country playing at that time, and it was my dream.

“It got a lot smaller as a coach. I was able to break the game down a lot more and realize that it’s still the same game.” Certainly, there was still stress and excitement, and the urge to retake the field was strong.

“I wished that I could have been playing this last year now that I have that experience under my belt,” Beattie said.

Of course, that experience probably helped the academic and second-team All-American who also was named the 2006 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Softball Player of the Year and The Kansas City Female Collegiate Student Athlete of the Year, put the 2008 Hornets in the position to vie for the title again.

“It was nice to be able to understand what they were going through and be able to tell them stories from when I was there just a few years ago,” Beattie said. “I thought back to when I went there and tried to figure out what would have helped me be more successful. That’s what I tried to apply with the team and emphasized to them.”

Master’s degree now in hand, Beattie is bringing her passion for coaching and all that experience back to the Olathe school district.

It’s her calling in some ways, she feels.

“As a player, I always enjoyed helping my teammates and lots of teammates would come to me with questions, especially about hitting and stuff like that,” Beattie said. “I really enjoyed that and always thought I was a natural at being able to see someone doing something wrong and helping find the right approach to fix it.”

Beattie will serve as an assistant volleyball coach for the Hawks and also will teach physical education and health at Pioneer Trail Junior High, a school she attended in the late 1990s.

That’s not all she hopes to be doing, of course, but she’s still looking for a softball coaching position.

“I really hope to be able to coach softball in the Olathe district,” Beattie said. “They seem to have something really special going, especially at Olathe East. There’s a lot of great tradition and I got to be part of that, so I’d definitely love to continue on what (Hawks coach Jeff) Hulse has done.”

Beattie wasn’t sure whether she’d coach college or high school softball. She only knows she wants to coach and is waiting for the right opportunity.

Her first season as a Hornets coach taught her plenty of lessons. She went through the withdrawal of no longer playing, no longer influencing the game with a swing, a catch or a throw. She battled through hiccups as former teammates became charges, seeing friends in a different light. Coaches and teammates view players quite differently, you know.

But last season, when ESU’s roster included a lot more freshmen — and only one girl, Jessie Wiard, whom she played with much — her desire to coach was cemented.

“I had more fun working with some of the new kids and felt more like a coach this last year,” Beattie said. “I had a lot of fun being able to help shape players this year. That’s one of the most fun things about coaching, watching a player mature from the start of the season, especially freshmen who have so much to learn.”

She knows the challenges will be a bit different when she gets her shot at the high school level.

Not every player will bring the dedication of a college athlete, for instance, and the talent gap will be considerable.

Of course, high school players won’t be as set in their ways either.

“I’m hoping the high school girls will be eager to learn and work hard because they still have a goal to get somewhere,” Beattie said. “They haven’t made it to college yet.”

With a little help from Beattie, though, many more Olathe girls may some day have a similar story to tell.

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