Is It Too Late to Plant Seeds?

As Maryland's Crop of Softball Players Grows, Terrapins Must Catch Up on Their Harvesting

By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 16, 2007; E01

Kaila Jenkins was thrilled to come home. After one year at Tallahassee Community College in Florida, Jenkins, a three-time All-Met softball player at Severna Park, transferred to Maryland last month. She figured to see plenty of familiar faces from the Washington area as new teammates.

But aside from Kerry Hickey, the 2007 All-Met Player of the Year from Huntingtown, there was nobody else.

"When I realized that Kerry Hickey and I were the only girls from Maryland on the team next year, I couldn't believe it," said Jenkins, the state's career leader in hits. "It's absolutely crazy because Maryland is such a good state" for softball.

Even in a region not as highly regarded for the sport as warm-weather locales, the Washington area has improved its profile substantially in the past decade and routinely sends players to top 20 programs in the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference and ACC, and even a handful to Pacific-10 powerhouses. Yet the Terrapins have been slow to join the race for the area's top prospects, instead recruiting from traditional softball hotbeds. The past three years, 29 first- and second-team All-Met softball players signed with Division I programs from high school. Only one -- Hickey -- signed with the Terrapins.

"You really didn't hear much of them," said Hickey, who said she limited her recruitment because she wanted to play close to home, and committed to Maryland after her junior season.

That could change, though, as Maryland Coach Laura Watten, who just completed her second season with the Terrapins, envisions not traveling far to shape her program.

"I want to build it with local kids," said Watten, whose team went 33-26 this season and 32-27 in 2006. "I don't want us to be a West Coast team. We're really trying to tap into the local area, build, and escalate it pretty quickly."

The region's softball talent is no longer hidden to the rest of the nation.

"The turning point, say, the past eight or nine years, is due to the amount of quality pitching that's coming out of that area," said South Florida Coach Ken Eriksen, who was also an assistant on the U.S. national team. "There are kids getting pursued by some of the top programs in the nation."

Watten said her program has a tough stigma to overcome.

"We've been out to a lot of [travel team] tournaments locally," Watten said, "because we want to show people that we're serious about [local players]. The first time we went out, people kept doing double-takes on us. They couldn't believe we were out there. That shouldn't be."

Local high school coaches have heard about Watten's intentions, but they've failed to see proof.

"I've been told that by a lot of summer coaches, but I haven't seen [Watten] come into this area," said Mike Johnson, who has coached Northern and Huntingtown to a combined seven state championships, and sent 1995 All-Met Player of the Year Kelly Shipman to Maryland, where she became a third-team all-American in 1999. "I'd love to be able to point kids in the direction and get [Maryland] some of the up-and-coming talent.

"We'd be misleading ourselves if we think we're at the level of California or Texas, but there's still plenty of talent around here that you could take and build a great program."

Said Jeff Shepherd, who stepped down in May after coaching Severna Park to five region titles in nine seasons: "If I were a college coach, in whatever state, I'd be on a first-name basis with every prominent [high school] coach in the state. I've never spoken with [Watten]. I don't understand it."

Maryland softball debuted in 1995, and its first scholarship players arrived the following season. In 1997, the program shared the ACC title, and two years later the Terrapins went 51-23, reached an NCAA tournament region final and finished No. 12 in the nation.

Since then, Maryland has not won more than 39 games in a season and has failed to reach the NCAA tournament. Meantime, the players developing under its nose have gone elsewhere -- this, despite the fact that the school in 2002 unveiled a $3 million softball complex that put it on par with some of the nation's elite programs.

"I questioned it while it was going on," said O'Connell Coach Tommy Orndorff, who has also coached the Shamrocks, the area's premier travel team, since 1973. "A whole lot of kids would have liked" to get recruited by Maryland.

Former coach Gina LaMandre, who resigned after the 2005 season, "stayed in the background and waited to see how other programs recruited," Orndorff added. "I don't think [recruiting] was her nature. Laura is more outgoing. She will be more active."

Megan Elliott, a four-time All-Met at Calvert, said she always wanted to play in the Pac-10. Still, she was surprised her home-state school barely made an effort to recruit her.

"I got an e-mail from [LaMandre], but that was it," said Elliott, who will be a sophomore at Arizona State and is a member of the U.S. junior national team. "Other schools would call me all the time. I was surprised. I know a lot of girls like to stay in state. I never heard the girls from my year or the year before me getting calls from [Maryland]."

Other area programs have been a little more receptive to in-state recruits, although they play in less competitive conferences. Eight of UMBC's 16 players this year, for example, were from Maryland. Five of its six recruits for the fall are homegrown. Mt. St. Mary's had nine of 17 players from Maryland. When they faced Maryland, Watten saw plenty of bitterness.

"They were angry," she said. "They were on a mission. I could see it in their eyes. I was like, 'Hey, I wasn't here then.' "

But now that she is, Watten feels responsible to recruit every local player.

"We don't want to lose anyone from this state or Delaware or Virginia," Watten said. "The last thing I want is a Maryland kid to beat me in a [NCAA] regional tournament."