April 18, 2008

Lorilyn Wilson just happened upon the situation. Like many people who just left college, Wilson moved back home to Salem in December and was trying to figure out what to do with her life.

She went with her cousin, Juliette Wilson — West Salem's standout senior pitcher — to a pitching practice at coach Jerry Southern's facility in Lebanon.

It was there that she talked with the mother of player Danielle Legee and learned that Lebanon High School needed a head coach for its softball team.

Pretty soon, Lebanon had a new coach.

"I said I wanted to coach as long as I could be a head coach because I didn't want to be under anyone," Wilson said. "To be a head coach ... it was something I wanted to do."

Wilson, however, is unlike most post- collegians.

A prolific winner and a champion at nearly every level in which she participated in softball, Wilson is coaching a team that she regularly defeated during her high school career at Sprague.

She had some offers to play softball professionally following a stellar career with the University of Michigan, but said she needed time away from the pitching mound after throwing nearly year-round for more than a decade.

After working during the fall at a sports academy in Michigan while finishing up her degree, Wilson got experience teaching girls about softball.

She is doing the same thing now, just with a bigger group.

"It varies from girl to girl," Wilson said. "Obviously I have to give all of them a kick in the pants once in a while. They just don't know what it takes, how hard you have to work to succeed at this level."

The Warriors are 8-4 overall and 7-4 in the Mid-Willamette Conference, good for a tie for third.

"I don't really care so much about wins and losses with them," she said. "I just care more (about) are they learning the game? Are they getting better? As long as we're building each game, that's really what I care about, because that's what in the long run is going to win you games."

Wilson produced a lot more wins than losses and titles during her playing days.

At Sprague, Wilson had a career record of 75-15 record, two first-team all-state awards and pitched the Olympians to a state Class 4A title in 2003.

At Michigan, Wilson had a 65-15 record with a career 1.27 ERA, second-team Big Ten honors and helped the Wolverines win the NCAA Division I national championship in 2005.

She is hesitant, however, to provide her pitching services to her high school team for batting practice.

"If I did, they wouldn't be able to hit me," she said. "Come on. They couldn't hit me when I pitched in high school. No, I don't usually throw BP."

She's got a point.

With no prior coaching experience, Wilson has fallen back on the decade plus of coaching she received.

"I just kind of fly by the seat of my pants," she said. "No, I'm kidding. (Assistant coach) Jimmy (Peters) helps. Obviously, I had great coaches at Michigan. A lot of the drills we did, a lot of the game strategy we used there."

She has a day job working for her father's medical software company, but it's easy to see why softball is where her heart is.

She recently ran into Sprague coach Jamie Smith — who was an assistant when she played at the school — and her former teammate Molly Barnes, now an assistant at Sprague.

They talked her into playing in an adult fastpitch league, and she's also been talked into playing slowpitch.

"I needed a break, but now I'm starting to kind of get the itch again, so we'll see what happens," Wilson said. "But like, the offers, like I just can't play right now.

"We'll see, we'll see how my little fastpitch game with Molly and Jamie goes. Obviously I haven't pitched in so long that if I was to get into it, I would have to hit the training pretty hard again. It would probably take at least three solid months of practicing just to like get back to where I was."

The beneficiary of her competitive fire now is the players at Lebanon.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6701