Haegeles leading the way
Father-daughter combo guide U-18 softball team to regional tourney
The Polson Lakers U-14 ASA softball team wasn't the only state championship team with local connections last weekend at the state tournament in Billings.
The Big Sky Blast U-18 team, which is coached by Kalispell's Rick Haegele, also won a state title.
Haegele melded his daughter, Flathead High School all-state center fielder Heather, with nine other girls from western Montana - including Polson shortstop Amanda James - to form the first-year Blast.
"Last year, three of the girls played for the Montana Rockies (out of Plains)," Rick Haegele said. "But a couple of parents wanted to go in a different direction and start a new team. They asked (Missoula Big Sky coach) Dennis Staves and I to coach. We said, 'Yes.' But then Staves injured his ankle and went on the disabled list so, I had to take it over."
With the state championship came an automatic berth into the national tournament. But with the regional tournament in Bozeman starting Saturday, the Blast decided to forfeit their national berth to represent host Montana at regionals. They can still qualify for nationals with a regional title.
"We wanted to be a team from Montana at the regional tournament because Montana was hosting it," Rich Haegele said.
The tourney comprises teams from Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The Blast received an opening-round bye and await the winner between the Magic City Havoc and Washington Spartans on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Besides Heather Haegele and James, the Blast have four girls from Missoula Big Sky (pitcher Christy Selway, 17; first baseman Sarah Lustgraaf, 17; third baseman Briggett Plenger, 17; and right fielder Ashley O'Reilly, 15), two from Missoula Sentinel (second baseman Rachel Eisenmann, 18; and pitcher Tiffany Seeberger, 17), one from Butte (catcher Ali Stosich, 18) and one from Missoula Loyola (left fielder Rose Harrington).
The team practices at Missoula Big Sky on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which has meant a lot of driving for the Haegeles.
"I'm glad Thursday is going to be the last practice," Rick Haegele said. "We've been driving down there twice a week and then traveling to whatever tournament we were in on Friday and coming back on Sunday. We've been on the road a lot."
It's been all fun and games for Heather.
"It's been a lot of softball," she said. "But a ton of fun."
The Blast beat the Glacier Emeralds - the program Rick coached and Heather pitched for in two state title runs during their 12-U days -12-3 in the quarterfinals. Then they had to hold off a Big Bear (Great Falls CMR) rally after taking a 7-0 lead for an 8-6 semifinal victory.
"That was an intense game," Rick said. "I wasn't paying attention to the crowd and I went to talk to our pitcher in the middle of an inning and when I turned around there had to be 300 people behind the backstop. The game had it all. There were ejections, lots of trash talking."
The Blast were beat by the Montana Rockies, 4-2, in the first championship game. But they won the title with a decisive 8-0 victory.
"We've got seven first team (Class AA) all-staters and two all-conference picks," Rick said. "Winning state is what I expected from this group."
The Blast came into the state tourney with an 8-10 record after two huge tournaments in Denver and Portland, plus another in Kalispell. But now they are 12-11.
"That doesn't sound very good," Rick said. "It took us awhile to get going. Plus, we didn't have (catcher) Ali (Stosich) in Denver or Portland. I can't say enough about how well Ali handles Christy (Selway) both with the pitch calling and emotionally. Now, I think Christy has developed into one of the best pitchers in the state thanks to Ali. We are 12-3 since she joined the team."
Heather Haegele is hitting .543 on the ASA season and was clocked in the top 10 from home-to-home at a Portland exposure camp, which included about 350 girls, with a time of 11.6 seconds. She has been a member of five ASA state championship teams (Glacier Emeralds 12-U twice, Missoula Bad Girls 14-U, Montana Rockies 16-U and now the Big Sky Blast 18-U). The crazy fact is she is still U-16 eligible. Colleges, including the University of New Mexico and UNLV, have already expressed interest in her. Just recently, she was offered a full-ride scholarship to North Platte Community College in Nebraska.
"I really want to go NCAA Division I," Heather said. "But I don't know. Those schools really don't think we can play softball up here in Montana. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens."