 "Photo: Courtesy WSU Sports Information")
It’s not often a coach is willing to say his team’s season may be defined by the first three days. But coach Gary Bryce and the Wayne State softball team can.
The Warriors start play Feb. 19 against 29th-ranked Georgia College as the second game of a double-header to open the 2010 season. Two days later, they will play the second-ranked Division II team in the county, North Georgia, and conclude the day against the fifth-ranked Indianapolis Greyhounds.
“The Indianapolis game is important because they’re in our region; this is the only shot we’ll get at them during the regular season,” Bryce said.
Last season, the Warriors went all the way to the second round of regionals before that same Indianapolis team eliminated them. The game, tied in the late innings, and the Warriors managed to load the bases but could not score. In the following inning, Indiana scored on what would prove to be a game-winning two-run homerun.
“It’s just the little things that you must do to win,” Bryce said. “And we didn’t do it, but that’s what happens sometimes.”
The 2009 Warriors played the Ashland Eagles six times, knocking them out of the GLIAC tournament after Ashland claimed the GLIAC regular season title. According to captain and pitcher Casey Hanes, Ashland represents Wayne State’s biggest GLIAC challenge this year, and the team is approaching the Eagles as its biggest divisional rival.
Outside of the regular season-winning Ashland Eagles, who received 10 top-25 votes, and the perennially-ranked Lakers of Grand Valley State, ranked 10th in the NFCA polls, the early season tournament represents the best chance for the Warriors to measure up against top-25 talent. In a season where great things are expected, these early games may prove crucial to a repeat NCAA bid. The Warriors enter the season ranked 20th in Division II, and the only other GLIAC team ranked in the top 25.
The Warriors will boast not only an athletically capable team, but an academically impressive one, as well. The 2009 Warriors were 14th nationally in team academics (second in the GLIAC), and Bryce boasts an impressive statistic of having never recruited a softball player who didn’t meet academic eligibility.
“Ninety-nine point nine percent of these kids won’t play fast pitch again after they’re done here. It’s important,” Bryce said.
However, he is quick to point out that ultimately, it is the determination of the women he coaches that decides their academic success.
“I’m not going to go to each of their classes looking for them to see if they‘re there … but if I do and they’re not, they better start running,” he said.
The Warriors bring a healthy mix of veteran and freshman talent to this 2010 season. They will return Hanes, who led the Warriors to their Super Regional run with a 27-9 record. She picked up GLIAC Pitcher of the Year honors. She dominated opposing hitters with sub 1.00-ERA and had nearly six times as many strikeouts as walks.
She will be joined by senior co-captain Nicole Abel who is looking to have a breakout season. Abel posted a solid 9-4 record with a respectable ERA of 1.50 in the 14 games she started in 2009, completing eight of those. She ranks 12th at Wayne State in career strikeouts with 243 and enters this season needing only 16 appearances to move into the top 10. Abel is a kinesiology major and was named to the athletic director’s honor roll (term GPA 3.5+) for winter in 2008. She was also named to the coaches honor roll (term GPA 3.0-3.49) for fall 2006 and fall 2007.
Their leadership will be needed on a squad that boasts five freshmen, including medical redshirt freshman Brittany Omelanchuk, who in seven games recorded five RBIs and a homerun before suffering a season-ending injury.
“She’s very mature,” Abel said. “She’s a real leader for the group of freshmen.”
The Warriors also bring in two highly touted freshmen from Ontario in Steph Foreman and Bailey Reid. Reid was part of the Geulph Gator team that captured gold in the 2008 Ontario Summer games. Bryce credits his ability to recruit high-class Canadian talent to Wayne State to former president Irvin D. Reid.
“It’s big for recruiting. Being able to tell these kids that their tuition will be at the in-state levels if they cross the border,” Bryce said. “It gives us a recruiting edge on some of the bigger schools over there.”
Bryce is entering his 29th season as the woman’s softball head coach with a staggering 925 career wins, ranking seventh all-time among NCAA Division II head coaches. In 2006, he won his 800th collegiate softball game, making him only the 29th coach ever to do that.
Under Bryce, the team has been nationally ranked 23 times in his 28 seasons, made 15 appearances in the NCAA Division II National Championship tournament, and won 14 GLIAC titles. In 2003, his team became the first in Wayne State softball history to advance to the College World Series after winning the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Allendale, Mich.
“I just love the game,” he said. “I’ve always coached, whether it was wrestling or baseball; it’s what I do.”
The team will spend a large part of the early season on the road until their April 2 home opener.
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