Cathy Inducted into the Hall of Fame

Cathy Johnson "CJ" Evans, my softball teammate at Western Washington University was inducted into the WWU Hall of Fame on Saturday. Eric and I went up to Bellingham for the ceremony. It was amazing. CJ is the youngest member of the hall of fame. She is also the first softball player ever to be inducted. CJ was a catcher and leader of our 1998 National Championship team. We had a ten year reunion a couple years ago. Here are a couple links I posted then that have pictures and video from the national tournament.

http://eric-dani.blogspot.com/2008/05/naia-national-champions-it-has-been-10.html

http://eric-dani.blogspot.com/2008/05/champs.html

CJ is an amazing person, and was an amazing player. She gave such a moving speech that she brought all of us teammates in the audience to tears. We are all so proud of her and feel truly honored to have been her teammate. Here is the video of CJ's speech. My camera ran out of room at the end, but at least you can see almost all of it. There is also video of the half-time of the basketball game where the announced the inductees. It was pretty cool that the current softball team was at both events to cheer CJ on.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EyfNKaUQ8S68GwAv6

Here is the entire speech:

Thank you. What an incredible honor. I am so filled with gratitude.

I am so grateful to the athletic department here at Western, and all of the work that goes into each season, year after year.

I am grateful to my family and friends who made the trip to be here today. My wonderful husband Mike and my two boys Connor and Jacob … my in-laws, college friends, teammates and coaches --- thank you all for being here.

I am also grateful that you student athletes are here to be a part of this day that is so special for me. I know from experience that you are thinking about how much work you have to get done before Monday morning, so thank you for being here.

I’m sure the other inductees here today would agree with me when I say that none of us would be here without the support of others. So much of what I was able to do here at Western was not because of my own efforts, but was possible because of the efforts of those around me. I have spent my life surrounded by truly incredible people.

I want to start by thanking my parents, Barb and Lowell Johnson. Mom, you drove me to so many practices and you prayed through so many games. And dad, you first taught me how to hit and then made sure that I practiced with you in the backyard, even through those awful teenage years when I was so mean. You both were so committed to me and did everything you could to help me be the best athlete I could be. Thank you for your never-ending support.

I also should thank my brothers, Dave and Mark. You pushed me around and gave me a giant chip on my shoulder. You taught me how to fight for what I wanted, and when I didn’t get it, to fight harder. I am a competitor because you made me a competitor.

I was not only blessed with a great family, but I was given the opportunity to play for an amazing coaching staff here at Western. Our tireless team of coaches spent countless hours figuring out ways that we could improve our game, detail by detail, and then had the patience to work with us and work with us until were able to do whatever nearly impossible skill they were trying to teach us. Without their commitment to our success, we might have just been another pretty good team. But instead, through hours and hours of grueling practice and softball class and sore muscles and bruises, scraped legs and hematomas, they taught us how to be champions.

Head coach, Art Phinney was our master motivator and a true softball genius. He studied the game down to the finest details and taught us how to master the fundamentals. When I am coaching today, most of what I teach young girls is simply an echo of what Art taught me.

Ed Eliason and Ian Shoemaker were two of our assistant coaches. Ed taught us a lot about the game and was our positive force in the dugout and Ian was our sports psychologist. They both helped us immensely to stay on track when things got tough. They kept us moving when we weren’t sure we could take another step.

Then there was Dick Greene. Dick was an incredible coach and taught me how to be a catcher. Everyone loves Dick, but he also had a way of keeping us humble. Dick isn’t one beat around the bush. My favorite example of this happened my freshman year. We were running timed sprints to first base. Dick was standing next to the base holding the stop watch and we were all lined up at home plate. When it was my turn, I stepped in the box, swung the bat and took off down the line, as fast as I could. I ran through the bag and hustled back to Dick and said “Dick, what’s my time?” I was feeling pretty good - thinking it must have been right around 3 seconds. He looked at me, looked down at his stopwatch, shook his head and said “Four hours and 25 minutes”. His point was, if I wanted to play, I better work on my foot speed...and so I did.

Together, our coaching staff had all the tools to make us our best.

The big year for us was 1998. We had finished a strong season with a record of 33 and 13 and were invited to the National Tournament in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. We were the last seed, and some didn’t think we deserved to go. Coaches protested that we played in a weak conference and others said we hadn’t played a tough enough schedule. We were determined to prove to those coaches and to everyone else, not only that we deserved to be there, but we belonged at the top.

We surprised everyone and won our first two games. We were slated to take on the defending national champions, Oklahoma City University. They had won the championship 8 out of the last 10 years and were heavily favored to win it again. We arrived at the field 2 hours early to warm up to be as ready as we could be for the big game. The arrogant Oklahoma City came walking into the park 45 minutes before game time.

They were putting on their cleats when Art called us in for a huddle. We all took a knee in the outfield, and he told us he had overheard a conversation. He thought we should know what little respect this team had for us. As they were walking into the park, he had overheard one of the girls say “who are we playing?” One of her teammates responded “I don’t know, some Washington team”.

Some Washington team??? …..Some Washington team??? Nothing could have gotten us more fired up! They strolled in, barely warmed up, and expected to walk all over this Washington team. They had no idea that we had been watching them. We knew each of them by name, we knew where they hit in the batting order, we knew which pitches they could hit and which ones they couldn’t. We knew their arm strength, their foot speed, we knew their pitchers, catchers and we even knew a few of their signs.

They had no idea who we were. They had no idea that…. We were Alison Haukaas, a bulldog on the mound, who was the meanest pitcher on the field, and could win any game she decided to.
We were Devon Fliss, who pitched the ball so hard, hitters would jump out of the box. We were Andie Greenen who could catch Devon’s pitching and who taught me so much about what it takes to be a great catcher. We were Julie Taylor, the hardest worker in Lou Parberry’s fitness center. Julie was my lifting partner, and I can still hear her yelling across the weight room “You can lift more than that!” (We all feared her a little bit). We were Jen Brandolini, whose season batting avg. was a record setting .427 and every time I came up to hit, she was standing there on base, begging me to hit her in. We were Sonya Joseph, who could fly through the air to catch balls that didn’t deserve to be caught We were Sure-Gloved Coni Posey, who never missed a ball at 2nd base We were Darcy “It’s not a Tumor” Taylor, who played through some of the worst injuries any of us had ever seen. We were Katie Osmundson who would dive through a brick wall if she had to, then get up ready to do it again. We were Stephanie Barker who could hit for big time power and always kept us laughing. We were Diana Burrows, as calm and smooth as a lake in the spring. We were Sarah Hanson who unselfishly did whatever was asked of her. We were Dani Puz, a cannon for an arm who could throw the ball home on a dime if anyone ever challenged her arm. We were Heidi Maher who could run like the wind. We were Laura Rabel who could play anywhere on the field. We were Alissa Hammer who was SO fast and an amazing left fielder. We were Lisa Chausee, Mandy Helzer, & Darcy Sohns who worked so hard all year long to be our masterful relief pitching staff. We were Western Washington University softball and we were going to win!

Oklahoma City scored first and put together three runs early in the game. We answered with one run and it took us until the 7th inning to tie the ballgame. We were down to our last out, and needed a big hit to win the ballgame. Jen Brandolini - Brando, our winning run, was on first base and Sonya Joseph was on her way to the plate. SoJo was a slap hitter - she bunted or poked the ball around the infield and was so fast she could beat the throw to first. I honestly don’t think she had taken a full swing all year.

Dick was coaching third base - All eyes were on him - what was he going to do??? We needed a big game-winning hit and had our slapper up to bat. He looked at SoJo so confidently, touched a hand, swiped an arm, touched his elbow and grabbed his hat. We all saw him call for the hit and run - time froze. The pitcher started her wind-up, Brando took off for 2nd base and SoJo started that mighty swing. Brando ran like her life depended on it - second base - third base. She crossed home plate about the same time that ball bounced off the center field fence. Sojo had hit a triple and “some Washington team” had taken down the mighty Oklahoma City University.

We went on to beat Simon Fraser in the semi final game, and although we had lost to them 6 out of 8 times that year, it never crossed our minds that they might beat us that day. They came back through the losers bracket to face us again in the championship game. In the final inning of that game, we were ahead with two outs. Alison Haukaas was on the mound, she pitched the ball, the hitter swung hard and hit the ball out to centerfield. We all held our breath as Brando glided in and pulled that ball out of the air - our dream had come true - we had won our national championship!

The bonds that were formed during that incredible year are something that can never be matched in any other area of my life. I consider these women to be some of my closest friends, 13 years after those glory days.

Being inducted into the Hall of Fame today is truly one of the greatest thrills of my life. It is with great gratitude that I accept this honor, but I want each of you to know that I would trade it in an instant for one thing: I would do anything for one more day on the field with those amazing women. And I don’t mean the Alumni game - I don’t think that would be a very fair trade - all of us washed up old broken down athletes carrying babies around. I’m talking late nineties, we’re all in the best shape of our lives, and we get another crack at Oklahoma City University. That’s what I want. That’s what I dream about.

So, in closing, I want to thank all of you who made this night happen for me, and especially thank you to those of you women who pushed me to be my best and continue to inspire me. I was so lucky to share those years with you.