THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: September 15, 2013
Lake City High senior softball standout Vanessa Shippy was sitting at her kitchen table doing homework and watching ESPN recently when she saw the potentially good news:
There was a chance softball - and baseball - could be voted back into the Olympics by the year 2020.
She called her best friend and former Timberwolf teammate, Casey Stangel.
"We can do it," Shippy said to Stangel. "You and I are going to play in the Olympics."
Then came the bad news for softball fans last Sunday - while wrestling was voted back into the Games, starting in 2020, softball (and baseball) were not.
"It was the instant feeling of emptiness, and hurt, knowing that the one thing I have wanted more than anything my whole life was now gone," said Stangel, who was regarded as one of the top high school players in the country last year, and is now a freshman pitcher at Missouri. "It's really hard to swallow knowing that we lost the vote to be back in the Olympics."
"The fact that softball was not voted back into the 2020 Olympics is a hard pill for me to swallow," said Shippy, a second baseman who has verbally committed to play for Oklahoma State in 2014. "Since the age of 5 I have dreamed of putting on a USA uniform and representing the country I love, playing the sport that I love."
Softball debuted in the Olympics in 1996, and was dropped after the 2012 Games. There's still a chance softball could return to the games in 2020, or perhaps in a future Olympiad. But if not, the Olympic dreams of the current generation of young girls could remain just that - dreams.
LIKE SHIPPY, Stangel has dreamed of playing in the Olympics her whole life.
"As a kid, I remember being asked in school, "Where do you see yourself when you are 25 years old?" Stangel said. "My answer? The Olympics. Plain and simple my whole entire life my dream was to be able to play in the Olympics and represent our country as a softball player."
Growing up, Shippy remembers watching USA stars such as Natasha Watley and Jennie Finch on TV.
"Speaking for most softball players, the Olympics is what you strive for," Shippy said. "I am very happy for wrestling that they will get the opportunity to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games, yet I still believe softball deserves to be there as well."
Stangel said her idols in the softball world came from the USA Olympic team - players like Cat Osterman, Laura Berg, Stacey Nuveman, and Dot Richardson.
"Seeing them gave me that spark, that feeling inside me making me want to work hard to be just like them," Stangel said.
FOOTBALL PLAYERS dream of the NFL. In baseball, it's the major leagues. Basketball, the NBA.
In softball, the Olympics are the pinnacle of that sport.
Stangel and Shippy will be a few years out of college when the 2020 Olympics roll around.
There's a National Pro Fastpitch league in the U.S. for those just out of college. There are also professional opportunities overseas.
But neither are the same as wearing the red, white and blue.
"I know that I want to play for the national team and that I want to become a college softball coach," Shippy said. "I believe God will guide me down the right path. If that path includes being asked to play professionally, I would be honored by the opportunity and play my heart out as long as I could. Either way, when playing softball is over for me, I will coach it and give back to the game for all it has given me."
Added Stangel:
"I will still work as hard as I can to be able to make the national team after college, and spend some time playing there before I pursue a career outside of playing," she said. "As great as the NPF is, it does not allow softball players to make a living off of our sport like the MLB or NFL does with their players. It does not make me want to shy away from playing after college, but I can guarantee it will make many other players reevaluate playing after college."
Still, if it works out, it'd be kind of cool to tune in and watch the Olympics in a few years, and see a former Lake City pitcher in the circle, and another former T-Wolf behind her, at second base.
That's what dreams are made of.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.