Bekah Duck knows what she needs to work on at Marshall. She spent the summer watching her new head coach do it at the highest level there is.
Duck, a pitcher from Maryville, Tennessee, lands in Huntington this fall for her first season with the Thundering Herd after two years at Pitt. She mostly picked Marshall for the staff. This starts with head coach Morgan Zerkle. Zerkle spent her summer doing the exact thing Duck is trying to get better at.
Most Division I coaches spend the offseason recruiting and building game plans. However, Zerkle spent hers on the field. She played for the AUSL’s Chicago Bandits and wore the red, white and blue for the USA Women’s Elite Team at the International Cup in Oklahoma City. She performed at an elite level from June through August. Duck kept up with all of it.
“I’ve really enjoyed watching her all summer,” Duck said. “It’s been amazing to keep up with and to see her consistency throughout the season, and also when she went to work with Team USA. I think that was the thing that stood out most to me. She was able to perform at this high level consistently throughout the entire summer.”
Consistency is the word Duck keeps coming back to. She will tell you the talent gap closes once you reach this level. What is left is who can do it over and over.
“I think what sets apart being a pitcher at this level is the mental game and consistency,” Duck said. “Everybody that’s made it to this level has the talent. It’s just kind of like survival of the fittest in terms of who can perform at their best, as consistent as possible, and as often as possible.”
That is why the summer meant so much to her. Duck got to watch her head coach hold that standard herself, in a national team jersey, against the best players in the world.
“She’s walked the walk, so she can talk the talk,” Duck said.
Zerkle is the name that turns heads. However, Duck did not commit to one coach. She committed to a staff. The day-to-day work on her game runs through pitching coach Drew Calloway. Calloway came up under Christian Conrad. Conrad is a coach Zerkle has called one of the best pitching minds in the country. Duck already has consistency circled as the thing she and Calloway will build.
“Being consistent is something that I think Coach Drew can really help me with,” Duck said. “I think just in general, the coaching staff will be a big help in terms of the mental game.”
Assistants Aly Harrell and Riley Blampied round out the group. Blampied was a standout at South Carolina, one of just a handful of Gamecocks to reach 100 career RBI and 100 runs. The versatility she showed as a player is part of what she brings to Huntington. Duck was sold on the whole room.
“I’m really excited to work with the entire coaching staff, and that was honestly a big part of why I chose to go there,” Duck said.
There is sort of a home feel to the move, too. Huntington sits in the same Appalachian footprint Duck grew up in. She already had a friend on the roster in Sydni Burko, a former Tennessee Mojo teammate. The draw, though, was the coaching, top to bottom.
Duck came to Marshall to get more consistent. She will chase it with a head coach who modeled it all summer. She will also chase it with a staff she trusts to get her there.
