Knowing How To Take A Lead

Photo by rick walter

THE CAPTAIN. Becca Cable was a steadying force for the Stadium Tigers softball team during this season.

As the Stadium High School softball team advanced through its season – beginning as a group of mostly young, talented players with a new coach and ending it one run shy of a trip to the state tournament – there was one player whose combination of softball skills and leadership ability was vital to the team’s performance.

Becca Cable is Tacoma Weekly’s top spring athlete of 2009.

A first-team All-Narrows League selection, Becca has established herself both at Stadium and in select team play over the past four years as the top centerfielder in the area. In her senior season, she also proved that if asked to be the team’s leader, she could run with the role, too.

“Becca is an all-around talented young lady. She is very versatile and a great team leader. She was our lead-off hitter because of her smarts, speed, and great bat. Her arm in the outfield is one of the best,” says Stadium coach Kim Thompson.

“It will be hard to fill her shoes next season.”

Becca will attend Pierce College in the fall, playing for coach Mark Edmonston’s rising program. And, as it happens, she will be arriving just as her sister Kim, a two-time MVP pitcher, will be moving on to college in Texas.

“Thrilled would be the word,” says Edmonston, regarding Becca’s decision to forgo a four-year school at this time to develop her game at Pierce and go on to a major conference school in two years.

“I’m not just her coach,” says Edmonston, “I am a fan of the entire family.”

Becca showed both her versatility and her team-first attitude this season. She had played most of her high-school games in center field, but midway through her senior season, she was asked to take over the catcher’s spot.

“The team was struggling a little bit with some of the new players so we shuffled some things and I began catching in districts and that meant playing a position I was not comfortable with. As a senior and team captain, that was a good opportunity to show the difference between a team sport and an individual sport. Even though you are one player, you affect each person on the field and how you accept your role is important.”

Coach Edmonston, who has known Becca and watched her play for the past five years, says she had the ideal makeup for her leadership role.

“She is pretty direct. But she can get across what’s on her mind without causing any problems or tension with her teammates.”

While softball has become the dominating sport in Becca’s life, she played soccer for nine years, as well as volleyball and ran track in middle school. In her free time, she likes to be on a snowboard, jet skis or off camping.

But her first sport is never out of sight or mind for long. She has played with two national gold touring teams, the Acers and the Sidewinders.

“I love fastpitch because of the people that I play with. I had to choose between soccer and fastpitch a few years ago, and I picked fastpitch because of the mental game. I like thinking. I like being challenged. There are so many mental aspects to the game, you have to physically tough, but mentally tough as well.”

Becca credits her teammates for a successful transition year – with two new coaches and three freshmen – in which expectations were at least met, if not exceeded.

 “It was an easy transition for the younger girls because they all played on select teams before and I had been a captain on my select teams, so it was easy for all of us to hear each other.”

Becca’s stats could alone have put her high on the list of the top athletes of this spring’s sports season. But her sportsmanship and leadership clinched the selection.

She looks ahead to joining a talented Pierce College team – and, in looking back, she has two enduring feelings about her time at Stadium. The first is playing as a freshman with her sister Kim on a team that went to state. The second is what she is leaving behind.

“As our season began this year, the girls were looking for something, and I think they found it. They now know how important it is to trust in your teammates and yourself, that’s what brings programs success. It was fun to be a part of that.”

Commenting rules