THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Cd’A coach Darretta helps grow the game — not just her own players

It was a couple seasons ago, as Timberlake High was preparing for another trip to the state 3A softball tournament.

The Tigers knew they were going to face better pitching than they had seen that year in the Intermountain League.

So Timberlake assistant coach Jenny Whaley got in touch with her old high school teammate, Bobbi Darretta.

When Darretta was a senior pitcher at Lake City, leading the Timberwolves to the 2001 state title, Whaley was a freshman for the T-Wolves.

Darretta went on to pitch in college, and is now in her fifth season as head coach at Coeur d’Alene High.

That season, the Vikings did not qualify for the state 5A tournament that year.

SO DARRETTA trekked up to Spirit Lake and pitched to the Tigers at practice one day.

“I really like their program,” Darretta said of Timberlake. “I pitch to our girls several days a week; I think it's a huge benefit to see live pitching.”

She said she pitches to her Viking team 3-4 days a week.

“I’m absolutely sore (afterward), but I teach the girls to be tough, so it's my turn to be tough,” Darretta said.

Timberlake head coach Casi (Reisenauer) Lupinacci played against Darretta as a junior and senior at Timberlake, and later when Casi was at Big Bend Community College and Bobbi at Walla Walla.

“She was very dominant back then,” Lupinacci recalled. “The girls were a little nervous. She probably throws faster than kids throw now. She went on to play D-I, so kids know what that level of pitching is like.”

So how did it go?

“At first, it was funny; they would hit a foul ball and get excited,” Lupinacci recalled. “We had to ask her to slow down a little bit.”

“Once they got a couple of hits, I picked up the speed a little bit,” Darretta said. “It was a lot of fun; they have such a good little program. I had a girl hit a bomb off me.”

ALSO, DARRETTA had been working with a couple of the Timberlake pitchers, so there was that tie.

In fact, in her “other” job as a private pitching coach, Darretta works with many of the pitchers in the area — even some who might stand in the way of her team and a state tournament berth.

She works with several pitchers in the Lakeland High program. She works with Moscow’s ace, and used to work with a couple pitchers at Lake City, and currently works with a couple pitchers in Post Falls who are a year or two away from high school ball.

“When I came back to the area five years ago, I felt it (softball) was not as good as it used to be; it was kind of a dying sport,” Darretta recalled. “I just wanted to help the pitching in the community get better.”

So she began working with pitchers in the area — her goal was to work with 40; she works with 37 this year.

“I honestly feel like, no child left behind,” Darretta said.

Not long after starting her private pitching coach business, she was named head softball coach at Coeur d’Alene High.

But she has continued to help pitchers all over the area — not just current and future Vikings.

“I think she just wants to make the game better, and just continue the knowledge, which is great,” Lupinacci said. “I think that is more important for her to pass on that knowledge than beating everybody and keeping that knowledge to herself.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.