Brickies look to build

Updated: April 22, 2011 2:06PM

For several years before Katrina Lucas graduated from Hobart in 2000, and during the ensuing 10 years leading up to this season, the Brickies softball program has been an afterthought at the school known for its football history.

Even if you're just focusing on girls sports, basketball has gotten more exposure in recent years.

"I played at the end of our great football years and Don Howell," Lucas said. "so everything was about football. We had some years in which we were struggling."

Lucas and her players are trying to change both of those patterns. First is getting noticed within the school's walls.

"It's obnoxious," junior pitcher Jaclyn Sandilla said about the attention football gets over almost every other sport at Hobart. "Not many people pay attention."

Senior shortstop Abby Adams added, "We try to get some support." 

Maybe the key is developing an attitude.

Before a stretch of three games in three days and against three very good teams this week - that turned out to be two games because Friday's tilt at Andrean was postponed until Monday - Adams had a declaration about the first of those games versus Highland.

"We're going to whoop 'em," she said while thumping her chest.

You see, last year the Brickies lost to the Trojans in 13 innings. That game was hard to swallow for Lucas and the players, including Adams, whose bulletin-board-material declaration was a premonition.

Hobart scored twice in the first inning and three times in the fourth inning on its way to a 6-2 victory, and Adams went 2-for-4 with a RBI and run scored to back up her proclamation.

But it takes more than attitude to turn around a program that hasn't won a sectional title in 1988.

"It's kind of hard," Lucas said. "Sometimes I feel like (the players) are content with way we play. It helps having young players the last two years."

Adams is the only senior starter, and she attested to the slow climb of improvement.

"My freshman year, we weren't too bad," said Adams, who has a .375 batting average through seven games. "The pride hasn't been there (since then) and it's been downhill. But I feel we bond so much better this year. There aren't any cliques like in the past."

The slow climb started in the summer when the Brickies played in a summer league (at South Central) for the first time. Lucas also started the girls on conditioning much earlier and had open gym - more like open field - in the fall.

Having a new school and new athletic complex that puts plenty of other schools to shame is also a boost. Hobart had played its softball games at the Hobart Girls Softball Little League complex just east of downtown. Now there are two fields behind the school, though they're still in the shadow of the football stadium with reminders of the state titles and runner-upfinishes painted in the shape of Indiana staring down at the softball fields.

"It does help the girls have a little more pride in the program," Lucas said of the new fields.

"We're still working on building their confidence more and getting them to believe we can compete with the better programs."

So far this season the record doesn't accurately reflect the Brickies' improvement. After a 6-20 record last season, Hobart is 2-6 after beating Highland and losing 2-0 to Wheeler on Thursday.

The Brickies defeated defending sectional champion LaPorte for their other win, and have lost close games to good teams in Griffith (5-3 after leading 2-0 late) and Kankakee Valley (1-0).

"We have a lot of good, young players," said Sandilla, who has 40 strikeouts in 44 innings.

And the confidence is much higher among all the players.

"It's like we've been the team other teams like Griffith, KV, Michigan City, Crown Point and Portage feel like they should beat easily," Adams said. "But we're confident we can keep up with them (now) and we can win.

"It's not the same Hobart team it used to be."

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