Taking A Swing

Persistence has
already paid off
for Andover
graduate Dana
LaKritz at U-M.

AARON HALABE

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

hen University of Michi-
gan freshman Dana La-
Kritz arrived in Ann Ar-
bor last month, she hit
the ground running .. .
and sliding and batting.
In fact, you might even
say she's in a league of
her own.
That's because the An-
dover High School gradu-
ate is one of the newest
members of the U-M's
women's softball team,
and the only walk-on to
make the squad this year.
Walk-ons are aspiring
players who are not re-
cruited from high school
and are not initially
awarded athletic scholar-
ships. Ms. LaKritz says
she clinched a spot on the
team with a persistent at-
titude and a good perfor-
mance during tryouts.
"It's hard for me to
understand that they ac-
tually could want a walk-
on. They have oppor-
tunities to recruit the best

players. I think they lik-
ed my speed and my offen-
sive skills. I'm the type of
person they call a table-
setter — one of the first
three batters who can get
on base."
The enthusiastic 18
year old is no stranger to
softball. At Andover, she
was a standout on the

girls' varsity team for four
years.

A speedy outfielder, Ms.
LaKritz was named the
school's female athlete of
the year in 1992, having
batted .547 in her senior
year.
An admitted softball

junkie, she played in infor-
mal summer pick-up

games with players from
Andover and other area
high schools. Two years
ago, .she participated in
the Maccabi Games in
Detroit. And last summer,
in search of a more com-
petitive environment, she
tried out and made an

Amateur Softball Associ-
ation team that accepts
only the best 17- and
18-year-old players.
Her team won tour-
naments around the
state, and only narrowly
missed the chance to play
in the national finals in
Tennessee.
Ms. LaKritz says the
amateur team honed her
skills and gave her self-
confidence, but she still
doubted her ability to
play at the college level.
That is, until she attend-
ed a softball camp coach-
ed by members of
Michigan State Universi-
ty's women's softball
team.
"I learned a lot," she
says. "And every time I
saw them, I thought they
were so good and that I
could never play at that
level in (NCAA) Division
1. But as I continued, my
coaches kept telling me to
try out."

With that encourage-
ment, Ms. LaKritz tried
out for the Wolverine
team, albeit with limited
expectations. "I figured
that if I tried, I had
nothing to lose . . . I didn't
expect to make it. It was
just an experience that I
wanted to go through,
and I made it. It's like a
shock, but I was definite-
ly pleased with how I per-
formed."
Ms. LaKritz hopes to
secure a starting position,
but admits that stiff com-
petition from seasoned
upperclass teammates
will make that tough.
"But I'm going to work on
it." Her strengths on the
diamond include speed
and an ability to get on
base.
But there is one in-
tangible over which she
has no control: her size.
Nicknamed "Squirt"
since her Andover days,
Ms. LaKritz measures in
at just under five feet tall.
True to her positive at-
titude, she views her
diminutive stature as an
asset. "It's more of an ad-
vantage than a disadvan-
tage, because it's harder
for pitchers to pitch
underhanded into my
smaller strike zone."
Armed with an un-
wavering enthusiasm for
her sport, Ms. LaKritz
credits much of her
athletic success to her
family. She says her
parents encouraged her to
pursue a sport like her
older brother Rob, who
played varsity baseball at
Andover. Ms. LaKritz