|
Softball: The NaturalKevin Foote, The Advertiser, March 6, 2013 For UL softball coach Michael Lotief, finding the words to gush over this players has never been a problem. He’s a bright guy and his background as a lawyer gives him a way with words not all coaches are blessed with. But even Lotief himself is already running out of the ways to describe what he’s got in freshman leftfielder Shellie Landry. Indeed, the former St. Thomas More star seems to have it all. She’s a very rare combination of everything a coach yearns for in an athlete in one package. Landry plays with the passion and love for the game of a Pete Rose. She has all the physical tools and put in the work necessary to be a superstar and yet her high standards and respect for the game still provide her with enough insecurities to prevent her ego from getting in the way. Her determination doesn’t leave much room for excuses. Failing is never a reason to quit, but rather another source of motivation to succeed. Being intimidated by a challenge just isn’t a part of her mindset. Even as a true freshman, Landry wants to be the one in the batter’s box with the game on the line. And yet, she’s also very much still the little kid looking at the baseball card dreaming of one day being the star herself. "She’s very special," Lotief said. "There’s no doubt that I’ve never coached a freshman more prepared for the Division I level than Shellie. "She’s just a fierce competitor. She wants to win. She wants to be the best. She has a passion for that one-on-one competition with the pitcher." And yet, there Landry was walking into the softball complex near DisneyWorld this past weekend, seemingly in awe of being around some of the nation’s top programs and at the same time relishing the opportunity to be one of those stars today’s young girls can look up to. "Walking in and seeing all those teams that I watched on TV growing up, it was crazy to me," Landry said. "I was like, ‘This is real. This is what I’ve been dreaming about.’ It was great." That approach didn’t even change once Landry got the field. "In my first at-bat (against Texas), I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m hitting against Texas,’ Landry explained. "Then I got a hit and I told myself, ‘I did it’ when I got to first base. Then I realized that it’s just another game of softball that I’ve played my entire life." The truth is that Landry hasn’t played one game this season like she’s in awe of her surroundings. Landry was 2-for-4 against Texas and 1-for-3 with two RBIs against Texas A&M. She’s currently hitting .400 with six doubles, six homers and a team-high 31 RBIs. Oh, she’s got plenty of room to improve with just four walks and 14 strikeouts, for example, but Lotief has no doubt that will happen. Thinking back to the fall when Landry was having difficulty making the transition to the new swing taught at UL, Lotief certainly wasn’t alarmed. He would just smile, knowing what was about to happen. "Kids like Shellie are always motivated to go farther and to be better, to take another step," he said. Landry admitted in Monday’s press luncheon that learning the new swing and different muscle memory certainly threw her off in the fall. "I thought, ‘I can’t do this. This is so hard,’" she remembered. But Lotief knew it would come and so did Landry. "No matter how well you do, you can always get better," Landry said. "You never reach your full potential. I’m not going to let myself get a big head, because I know there’s always something for me to work on to get better." Making the transition from high school where she led the Lady Cougars to state titles in volleyball and softball to college, Landry said the mental side has been the biggest difference. "In high school, you can take a pitch off here and there and get away with it," Landry said. "You can’t do that in college. You have to be focused for every pitch." Lotief feels Landry’s super-competitive approach to the game is just now reaping its full benefits. "I think Shellie fits right in there with this team," he said. "Her teammates love her. This is a competitive group of girls. I’m sure there were times for Shellie growing up where being a fierce competitor wasn’t necessarily good. On this stage, she can just let loose. I think her coaches and teammates understand and appreciate that about her." Having coached one of the top freshmen in college softball history in Danyele Gomez, who was inducted into UL’s Hall of Fame this past fall, Lotief can truly appreciate Landry’s quick ascent. "She’s got that same competitive mindset, she’s extremely athletic with the strength, speed and grace and she’s got that great work ethic," he said. "She wants it." Landry said she spent a lot of time with senior catcher Sarah Draheim this past summer, which helped to prepare her mentally for the challenges of her freshman season. "That really helped me grow," Landry said. "She’s been around the program." So Landry wasn’t afraid to not act like a freshman. "I don’t think the seniors look at us (freshman class) as just little freshman," she said. "I think they look at us as being just as important parts of the team as they are. We’re one big sisterhood." As Lotief explained it, Landry was never one of those freshman who showed up waiting for a senior to take her by the hand and show her the way. Instead, she was right in the middle of the conversations in the back of the bus during that 15-hour ride back from Florida trying to figure out what went wrong in the three losses to Texas, Texas A&M and Illinois State. "He (Lotief) told us that he could think of seven pitches that if we had executed better were the difference between winning those three games and losing them," Landry said. "We all have to get better. I wasn’t 100 percent myself either." Even for this program, watching Landry strive to get to that point over the next four seasons should be something for the Lamson Park faithful to behold.
|