Five minutes. That was all Terrapin softball coach Laura Watten said she needed to see.
After a winding trip down Route 4 to Huntingtown High School in Huntingtown, Md., Watten had wandered down a ditch to the softball field and parked herself behind the backstop near home plate. There, she had heard, a legend was being born.
When she finally laid her eyes on then-sophomore Kerry Hickey, it was only a matter of a few rise-balls and changeups before Watten was convinced.
“I knew then that I wanted her to be a part of this program,” Watten said. “She was somebody we could build this team off of.”
As a sophomore taking the mound in her first varsity game, Hickey threw a no-hitter. She did it again in the 3A state semifinals. In the final, during Huntingtown’s first year of varsity competition, Hickey threw a two-hitter and went 4-for-4 at the plate to lead the Hurricanes to the championship.
Hickey and Huntingtown would do it again the next year – and then again the year after that. In her last high school at-bat, she capped her brilliant career with a two-run home run at the university’s Robert E. Taylor Stadium before a crowd that included Watten.
“I tried to be the best at everything that I did,” said Hickey, who went 48 consecutive games at Huntingtown without allowing an earned run. “I really wanted to play at the D-1 level, and I tried to do whatever it took to get there.”
Hickey’s journey to College Park, coincidentally, included late nights with the father of a Terp softball legend. Every chance she could, Hickey said, she would visit Ralph Shipman, whose daughter Kelly was the 1999 ACC Player of the Year.
In his basement, Hickey would pitch, field and hit – whatever it took to get better.
“It’s little success in the sport, and actually seeing your hard work and everything pay off [that] makes it worth it,” she said. “It keeps you driven.”
After a high school three-peat and earning All-Met Player of the Year honors, Hickey headed to the university in 2007 accustomed to success but unsure of her role at the collegiate level.
Hickey’s early-season start her freshman year allayed any of those fears. As her team soared to a top 25 ranking and a 19-1 start, Hickey made a bid for the label as the conference’s top freshman. During the 2008-2009 season, she earned ACC Player of the Week honors in March and led the league in hitting at one point.
“We were on fire the first part of the season,” Hickey said. “We had the confidence. We were ready to just take it all.”
Then Hickey began to hurt. She had pitched all through high school with a nagging back injury, but hadn’t let it affect her success. After all, two games a week was nothing, she said.
The grind of college softball, however, became too much. After playing seven games in one weekend, Hickey said her body had all but given up.
“You play so many games, I couldn’t handle it,” she said. “I guess that just took a toll. I was just feeling tired and worn out.”
As Hickey’s condition deteriorated, so did the Terps’ play. When pitcher Meredith Nelles went down with a career-ending back injury, the Terps were out two aces. As the team limped to 14-19, Hickey said she couldn’t stand seeing a fatigued and sore Sarah Dooley take the pitching circle game after game.
“I felt like there was something that I could’ve done, or could’ve sucked it up and ate up some innings or something to at least get her some rest,” she said. “But it just didn’t work out.”
When summer came, Hickey couldn’t bask in her joy of softball. Instead, she “didn’t pick up a ball,” but focused on physical therapy that would strengthen her core and reduce the risk of straining her back again.
When Hickey finished rehabbing, she was on a pitch count for the first time in her life.
“They were like, ‘What pitch are you on?'” Hickey recalled her coaches asking during the preseason. “I was like, ‘I don’t know.'”
Hickey said she is without pain for the first time in her college softball career, and it’s showing. She’s one of two players – reigning ACC Player of the Year Danielle Spaulding of North Carolina is the other – to rank in the ACC’s top 25 in both hitting and pitching.
This weekend’s series against Georgia Tech may punch the Terps’ (29-23, 9-9 ACC) ticket to the NCAA Tournament, but only if they can come through with a win or two.
Sunday, Watten will honor the team’s seniors in a ceremony Hickey said will be a “wake-up call.” She has only two more years after this season, and her legacy is still to be decided.
She admits an NCAA Tournament or ACC Championship would be nice. Still, she pauses and looks down as she ponders what accomplishment she’d most want to leave with.
Hickey then looks up and answers: “With no regrets.”
shafferdbk@gmail.com
