Wilmot’s Wood, other seniors finish as All-Stars

By Dan Truttschel~Sports Correspondent

When the Wilmot softball team lost a heartbreaker to eventual state qualifier Westosha Central in the sectional round, it marked the end of a successful coaching career for Bob Movrich.

As it turned out, however, he had two more games left as the head coach of the Division 1 Red squad in last week’s Wisconsin Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Star Games in Stevens Point.

And working with some of the best players in the state certainly wasn’t a bad way to officially walk away from the game.

Movrich took his assistants and three members of the Wilmot team with him to Stevens Point, where they split a pair of games at Zenoff Park.

While the games were competitive, they were more of a reward for the seniors and the coaches – and the emphasis was on having a little fun after a long, tough season.

“The all-star game was a really good time,” Movrich said. “It was a lot of fun to coach my kids one more time.”

Wilmot was represented by Kelli Hutchinson, Kelsey Saucerman and Kristen Wood, and they were joined by four members of the Union Grove squad they had battled the past four seasons.

That was a bit of a strange twist, Movrich said, to go from trying to beat Union Grove to playing alongside them, even if just for one day.

“I was teasing them, ‘I said, after rooting against you guys for four years, it’s kind of fun to be on he same team and pulling for you,” Movrich said.

Union Grove players on the roster were Alecia Faber, Alice Fitzpatrick, Amber Johnson and Katrina O’Keefe.

Movrich said he didn’t want to put any pressure on the team, as he shortened practice the previous day and just let the all stars do their thing.

“It was going to be more for fun,” he said. “We certainly didn’t drill them too hard (in practice).”

Movrich said the talent he had to work with, which also included two members of this year’s Division 1 state champions from Chippewa Falls, gave him a different perspective than he had during the regular season.

“Now I know what it’s like to coach a travel team,” he said. “We just had all stars from different conferences. You put them out there and let them do their thing.”

In the end, Movrich brought back a couple more positive memories about his final season.

“I wish it could have lasted longer,” he said. “It was fun.”

The Wilmot contingent was joined at the event by Westosha Central senior Hayden Krueger, who played on the Division 1 Black team coached by Kenosha Bradford’s John Ruffalo. More information on her trip was unavailable this week.

 

More awards announced

Also this week, All-District and All-State honors were announced this week as well.

Wood, who earlier this spring was named the Gatorade Player of the Year, was a first-team, All-State selection, while Krueger and her teammate, Brittany Blazich, were named to the second team.

Wood, Blazich, Krueger and Wilmot’s Kelli Hutchinson were named to the first-team, All-Southeast District.

 

 


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