Softball 'more than just a game' to new Viking coach

By MARK NELKE

After accepting the job as head softball coach at Coeur d’Alene High last September, former Viking star Lindsie Scholwinski put the word out about an open gym for players interested in the program.

Four players showed up.

“I was a little nervous,” Scholwinski recalled.

Realizing many of her players were also busy with other sports at the time made her feel a bit more at ease. Eventually, they were up to 16 on the roster following tryouts in February.

SCHOLWINSKI, A left-hander who graduated from Coeur d’Alene High in 2013, played two seasons at Community Colleges of Spokane, then two more at NAIA Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla.

As a senior at Southeastern, she was 24-11 with a 1.88 ERA for a 43-17 team that qualified for the national tournament. As a junior, she won a school-record 33 games, 11 by shutout.

At CC Spokane, she led the Sasquatch to a Northwest Athletic Conference title as a sophomore, and was named MVP of the conference tournament.

Her college career over, she was working a handful of jobs back in this area, one of them being a personal trainer in Spokane. One of the clients there was Hailey Lyons, a catcher at Coeur d’Alene High, who told her about the job opening with the Vikings.

Scholwinski had an offer to become an assistant coach at CC Spokane when Lyons told her about the Coeur d’Alene job.

Scholwinski jumped at the chance to become a head coach.

“I wanted to be able to show girls it (softball) is more than just a game,” she said.

MANY REMEMBER Scholwinski as the pitcher who moved up here from Boise after her eighth-grade year, then pitched four years for the Vikings.

But Scholwinski was born in Coeur d’Alene, and lived here until age 3 when the family moved to Boise. When her dad, Steve, landed a job back up here, the family moved back. Plenty of extended family members also live in the area.

As a junior at Coeur d’Alene, Scholwinski pitched the Vikings to a 5-2 upset victory over the defending champion (and city rival) Lake City Timberwolves in the state 5A title game. As a senior, she led the Viks to a third-place finish at state, after losing to eventual champion Lake City in the semifinals.

Scholwinski had a fine career as a pitcher for the Vikings. It just so happened that during her four years in high school, another left-hander was putting together a pretty good prep career during the same four years, just a couple of miles away.

That would be Casey Stangel, at Lake City High.

So if Scholwinski may have been overshadowed during that time, she said she didn’t care.

“I was happy for Casey; she’s a great athlete, and a great role model,” Scholwinski said. “It didn’t bother me because I knew I wasn’t doing it for me; I was doing it for my teammates. It didn’t bother me; the cool thing was that Casey and I were friends.”

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@CdAPressSports.