Caskey fastbreaks into batter’s box

March 19, 2004
by Jake Lloyd
Sports Editor

Sarah Caskey, Stockbridge junior, needed something she’s not used to getting—rest.

It was the Thursday before spring break and Caskey and the rest of Albion’s women’s basketball team had gotten back from its first ever NCAA tournament game at 3:30 a.m. the previous night. Caskey had only gotten an hour and a half of sleep, because she had to unpack and then wake up at 6:30 to get some stuff done.

The Britons had fallen to Wilmington College 66-62 in a hard-fought game that they led by 12 during the second half. Caskey led Albion with 19 points.

On the other hand, Albion’s softball team, on which Caskey started all 42 games last season, was preparing to fly to Orange, Calif., for the Sun West tournament in which it would play 10 games.

The end of one season, the beginning of another.

But all Caskey wanted to do was rest.

“The end of the season wore me out for a little,” Caskey said. “I for sure was ready for a break to let the body heal up.”

The two-sport athlete usually takes off just two or three days between seasons, but this year she decided to skip the spring break trip since the basketball season went so long. Caskey joined the softball team when she returned from a relaxing week at home, during which she slept in until 11 every day.

Caskey not only plays two sports at Albion, she succeeds at them also. Caskey, who started all 29 games, led the basketball team in scoring this season for the second consecutive year. She averaged 13.9 points. In addition, she pulled down 4.2 rebounds a game and led Albion by averaging 4.2 assists and 2.6 steals.

Caskey was a first team all-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) selection for the second straight season.

Despite missing all of the preseason practices, Caskey doesn’t struggle to find success on the softball diamond come springtime. Last season the shortstop started all 42 games and batted .302, making the second-most appearances at the plate for the Britons, with 139 at-bats. Caskey also led Albion with 29 RBIs and struck out just four times.

“If I am going to spend all of my time practicing and playing, I want to do well so I have something to show for it,” Caskey said of her success in both sports.

Caskey has played sports all her life and thought she would become bored if she didn’t continue to play both softball and basketball at the collegiate level. She didn’t think playing two sports would be too much of a load, considering her past experience.

“I used to play volleyball, AAU basketball and hockey all during the same season, so I figured I could deal with two sports during two different seasons,” Caskey said.

At first Caskey was recruited by Albion just to play basketball, but soon after she caught the attention of the Britons’ softball coaching staff. Both coaches who recruited Caskey were okay with her playing two sports. Caskey again had to make sure the situation was acceptable when Doreen Belkowski took over for Annamarie Wyant as the basketball coach prior to Caskey’s first year.

And it was, as long as softball didn’t get in the way during basketball season.

Besides participating in the nine fall practices that the softball team is permitted to hold, Caskey rarely gets a chance to even swing a bat before she joins the team in March. She estimated that before this week she had swung a bat only 10 times since the end of last season.

So it’s not surprising that there’s a little rust at the beginning of the season. Caskey has to get used to the hops a ball will take in the infield, and she sometimes reverts back to a bad batting habit of using a baseball swing instead of the compact softball swing. But Caskey is quick to regain her good form.

“The only hard thing about going from basketball to softball is getting back into the softball mindset,” Caskey said. It usually takes her a week—or less—to get back in the right frame of mind.

And that’s a completely different frame of mind. There aren’t many skills Caskey can transfer from the hard court to the diamond besides her athleticism. The only similar aspect of the sports is the quick shuffling of feet on defense in basketball that is essentially the same as the movements Caskey must make to her right or left to field hard-hit groundballs.

Caskey spends most of the summer away from basketball and softball, but not away from sports. She simply focuses on staying in shape, whether it be through running, biking or rollerblading. Caskey also works on a grounds crew from the week after school gets out until the day before she returns to campus.

So while students from Albion enjoyed their breaks at warm places all over the world, Caskey, the year-round athlete, was perfectly content to sit at her Stockbridge home and do . . . nothing.