Making the right decision ... in music and in sports

COEUR d’ALENE — In the sixth grade, Madi Mott had to make a decision.

Choir or band.

A few years down the road, Mott had another decision to make — either dedicate herself to pitching, or focus on hitting at the college level.

The second one was a lot easier.

Faced with a decision in grade school, Mott joined the band, opting to learn the saxophone.

“I can’t sing, at all,” Mott said. “So my mom had me try the saxophone. And I really liked it, so I stuck with it.”

She still plays from time to time.

“My teammates know I can play the saxophone,” Mott said. “They asked me over winter break to record a song for them, so I did. They always ask me to play a song for them, so I did it and they couldn’t believe it.”

Her teammates are those of the North Idaho College softball team, which is 33-3 after a conference crossover tournament near Portland last weekend.

Mott, a 5-foot-10 freshman from Gladstone (Ore.) High, is 17-1 in the circle with a 1.94 earned run average in 24 games for the Cardinals. Entering the weekend, Mott held a .495 batting average (46 for 93) with six home runs and 44 runs batted in. Mott has scored 41 runs this season.

“I enjoy pitching more for sure,” Mott said. “I like being in control of the game. Having the ball in my hands, I can just enjoy myself.”

As far as hitting?

“I was good at hitting in high school as well,” Mott said. “Over the winter, I put in a lot of time and work with (NIC softball coach) Don Don (Williams) to get better and be a better hitter. And she’s really improved my mental side of the game, and just made me more mentally tough. Just having a better approach when I get into the (batter’s) box has helped me a lot.”

“We recruit hitters,” Williams said. “And I think pitchers should hit. Too often in today’s game, pitchers don’t hit and they should be your best hitters in your lineup. Madi is a great hitter, and thankful to the flex hitter/DP (designated player) rule, she gets to stay on the field whether she’s pitching or not. It was an easy decision to bring her here and no-brainer for me.”

Mott, a biology major, plans to pursue a career in the medical field.

“I want to eventually become a physician’s assistant,” Mott said. “Whenever I went to the doctor or the ER (emergency room), I was always super interested in what the doctors were doing.”

A certain Thursday night drama only increased that interest.

“‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is my favorite show,” Mott said. “It’s just something that interests me. I’ve been to the ER a few times, but not a horrendous amount.”

She plans to attend a four-year school after graduating from NIC.

“I want to go back to school and get my EMT license, become an EMT, then a paramedic and then a physician’s assistant,” Mott said. “I’ll be one credit shy of my A.A. after this year, but my plan is to stay here and see what happens after that.”

Mott chose NIC after visits to some other community colleges. Among those were Clackamas in Oregon City, which is only a couple miles from Gladstone. Her visit to the campus in Coeur d’Alene was her final stop.

“NIC has a nursing program that offers regular science classes that will benefit me going into the science field,” Mott said. “My pitching coach in Oregon, Sue Orren, mentioned NIC when I was visiting some schools in Oregon. I emailed Don Don, and found myself getting an offer up here. The location of Coeur d’Alene was far enough from home, but still close enough at the same time.”

Mott was named to the school’s Dean’s List for the fall semester. To be eligible, students must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 credits and obtain a grade point average of 3.75 or above.

“She’s just a great kid to coach,” Williams said. “She’s a 4.0 student. She’s a pre-med major and has great time-management skills. She’s a hard worker and has put in a lot of extra time to improve her game. She’s always studying and she’s just so easy to coach and a great teammate. She’s on board with what we want to do. Just everything, it’s been a good year having her on the team.”

Last Friday, Mott — along with her Cardinal teammates — took on Clackamas in a nonconference game.

“A lot of my friends and family were going to be there,” Mott said. “Clackamas is about 15 minutes from my house. I almost went there actually, so it’s going to be a rivalry game.”

Mott added she was looking forward to some family time after the games were over.

“We’re going to have a family get-together at my grandpa’s and going to get Salt and Straw, which is the best ice cream place you’ll ever eat at,” Mott said last week. “It’s going to be really fun.”

When Mott’s not busy striking out hitters, or driving in runs on the softball field, she enjoys being outdoors.

“I love paddle boarding,” Mott said. “I just love being in the water, and anything outside. Except hiking. That’s just not fun to me.”

That includes going to the lake near campus during her down time.

“It’s funny that people from Idaho call it a beach,” Mott said. “From where I’m from, our beach is the beach. It’s like a lake to me, but they call it the beach.”

NIC resumes East Region play at the Community Colleges of Spokane on Wednesday.

Mott often times listens to music before taking the circle.

“One of my favorite songs is ‘It’s My Life’ by Bon Jovi,” Mott said. “That’s my pump-up song basically.”

Mott added she tries not to think about the game much beforehand.

“I try not to visualize the game because I tend to play worse,” Mott said. “Normally, I just try to play some music, tell myself to have fun and just go play some softball.”

Mott was also a four-year player on the Gladstone High basketball team.

“I don’t like basketball enough to play it in college,” said Mott of being a two-sport athlete in college. “But if lacrosse was in the fall, I’d definitely play that as well. I had a couple of friends that played it in high school. Just the rugged nature and toughness of it, that’s cool to me. I really like that. It’s awesome.”

The population of Gladstone was 12,116 according to a 2016 census. Coeur d’Alene’s is 50,285.

“Everyone knows everyone here,” Mott said. “It’s like a hometown community where everyone cares for everyone. It’s probably one of the things I like about Coeur d’Alene the most.”

NIC, which is 18-2 in the East Region, leads Wenatchee Valley (16-4 in East) for the region lead. The top four teams in each region advance to the NWAC Championships May 18-21 at the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex in Spokane.

“I don’t even know what our record is,” Mott said. “We don’t look at stats. We just focus on playing the games. Don Don always tells us the game of softball doesn’t know who should win the game. There’s no should in athletics. We just go out every day, focus on us, and have some fun.”

“We’re not focusing on outcomes,” Williams said. “Since Day 1, this team is focused on the process and winning the inning and let the outcome take care of itself. We’re not a stat-driven team. Hopefully Madi shouldn’t have any idea what her stats are, and the same for the rest of the team. Hopefully they’ve bought into it and it’s been awesome.”