Kremer: JCA Softball Leaders Refuse to Back Down

Difficult. Trying.

Those two words could be used to describe Joliet Catholic Academy’s softball season. Line drives have turned into outs. Excellent pitching as been wasted on occasion by sloppy fielding.

Those two words also could be used to describe how JCA senior pitcher Stephanie Tillman and senior first baseman Alex Kennedy have grown to be stronger individuals during their time with the Angels. They have adapted in difficult times, trying times, and remained steadfast leaders on a very young team.

Joliet Catholic Academy has six seniors on its roster—four who regularly start—and the rest of its current cast is made up of freshmen and sophomores. The Angels dropped a 10-2 decision to Marian Catholic on Wednesday afternoon that dropped their record to 1-13.

Dave Douglas’ squad is on a pace to finish with the fewest wins since he took the reins as JCA’s head softball coach more than two decades ago. He remains upbeat because recent images have painted a picture resembling a glimmer of hope for an Angel surge in the IHSA playoffs.

And he remains upbeat in large part because of Tillman and Kennedy. Both have plans to play collegiate softball. Both intend to follow career paths that someday will put them in charge of taking care of many others.

Both have been inspirational during the most trying times, Kennedy as the first to arrive every day and the last to leave, Tillman by bringing a positive attitude.

“Sometimes pitchers can be temperamental,” Douglas said. “I’m not seeing that out of her. She’s not had any of the ‘Diva’ moments out here or anything like that. It’s really been a pleasant surprise.”

Tillman plans to study pediatric nursing at Iowa Wesleyan. Kennedy wants to become a physical therapist and will study sports medicine at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Real-life experiences led both to arrive at their decisions—on and off the field.

“My cousin died from cancer when I was in sixth grade,” Tillman said. “And the whole Matt (Mammosser) situation that happened last year (JCA football tackle Matt Mammosser died of cancer) kind of pushed me more toward nursing and caring. I thought, ‘What better way to come back and help?’

“And I’ve always loved working with kids. I took a first-aid class last year, and I just loved that.”

Kennedy suffered a knee injury that sidelined her for almost all of her sophomore season and left her in a brace during her junior year at JCA.

“That whole process of working with the trainers—physical therapy—it’s something that interests me,” she said. “And I’m taking anatomy right now. My injury—the doctors and trainers—they don’t really know what happened.

“It was something with the tendons—they were over-stretched. And it made everything in my knee feel really loose."

Before all is said and done, she wants to get to the bottom of the nagging questions surrounding her injury, say nothing of getting the Angels turned around. Her goal is to finish her JCA career on a high note.

“Yeah, I think we’ve all come together these past few games,” Kennedy said. “The mental errors, like Stephanie (Tillman) said, have been cut back. We just all pick each other up. And our hitting is coming along. We’re watching the ball longer and being able to see it through. We’re starting to click as a team.”

Years ago, Douglas might have moaned out loud, “It’s about time.”

Not today.

“Unless we have some miraculous run, this will be the least wins I’ve ever had in a season,” he said. “I think it’s just been a case with the weather where we didn’t get any kind of rhythm early.

“With a young team, you’re going to need to get out and maybe get a win early and get excited. But we missed all of our non-conference games and then you walk into our conference and start to play. It’s pretty tough. I’m not worried about it. I guess I’m at a point now where I’m on the more mellower end of my career.

“Ten or 15 years ago, I probably would not be handling it as well.”

Douglas is not quitting because Tillman and Kennedy and so many others are not quitting.

“That’s all we’ve talked about this week is, ‘Hey, we’re better than we were a week ago. We’re better than we were two weeks ago.’ So, we’re going to keep working to be better the next week and, then, the next week after that with a plan of trying to get to the playoffs and see if we can have some fun.”

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