Northern Kentucky softball seniors leave a strong legacy
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – It is tough when good things come to an end, and Saturday, that reality hit Northern Kentucky softball after elimination from the NCAA Softball Knoxville Regional.
The Norse were eliminated by the Indiana Hoosiers, but this group went out proud of the fight and grit they had shown throughout the season. This was a team that at one point did not even know if they would make the Horizon League tournament.
They not only made the tournament but also earned the championship, and that would not have happened without the leadership of the seniors and coach Morgan Gerak’s charge to the group to help steer things back on track.
That charge came during a tough time in the season when wins were hard to come by. The Norse at one point lost seven of eight games. Rather than forcing a solution, she looked to her veterans and instilled trust in their leadership.
“It was not me. Truly,” Gerak said. “I went to our leaders and I said, I need your help. I’m at a loss. I don’t know what you need, but I need you to take ownership over what you’re doing and your craft. I asked them to plan practice, actually. I said, it’s not because I don’t believe in you. I said it’s because I believe in you so much.”
What followed was the hardest practice of the year, planned and run by the players themselves. They even tacked on sprints at the end.
“In that moment, I remember driving home from that practice and I said, we’re going to be okay,” Gerak said. “I told my husband that on the phone. I said, we’re gonna be okay.”
The turnaround was a credit to a senior class that wanted to uphold the standard. Alicia Flores, Jena Rhoads, Brielle DiMemmo, Peyton Mueller-Stenz, and Victoria Flores entered the season carrying that hunger for more, and they pulled the rest of the roster along with them.
“Culture is not something that you just reprogram every year. It’s built. It’s a foundation that’s sustained,” Gerak said. “It’s a foundation that these guys worked to build four years ago, and the seniors before that built it before.”
For the players, the season became about more than wins. It became about each other.
“It’s not one of us, it’s all of us,” DiMemmo said. “Midseason, we went through a lot of adversity and we really had to look towards each other to not only push each other, but have the hard conversations. A couple weeks ago, we didn’t think we were gonna make it into our conference tournament, so just always being gritty and always playing for their next game.”
The doubters made the championship sweeter. Outside voices wondered whether the Norse would even reach the conference tournament, let alone win it.
“I just think us sticking together and saying, okay, yeah, bet,” Alicia Flores said. “We knew that we could love each other hard, and through that, that would help us compete harder.”
That bond was built on more than softball. Gerak’s program made room for her players to be people first, and her seniors felt it.
“She was so flexible. She let me do nursing, and I know a lot of these bigger schools, they don’t let you do nursing because it’s so time consuming,” Rhoads said. “I would not have been able to graduate and soon to become a nurse without her. I’m just forever thankful that I got to come here and play a sport I love while also pursuing a career that I love.”
For Flores, who heard for years she was too small to play at the D1 level, NKU was the program that gave her a shot.
“Everyone was always telling me, oh, I don’t know if you can go D1,” Flores said. “Our coaching staff taking a chance on me and allowing me to pitch for them for five years is really cool. Every single time I played at a big school or in a big moment, I can do it. That’s something I’m gonna carry with me for the rest of my life.”
That belief carried Northern Kentucky into Knoxville, where they fought Tennessee on Friday and battled Indiana on Saturday. The season ended in the regional, but the seniors are walking away with lifelong bonds and two Horizon League championship rings.
“I told them at the end of the game, I wouldn’t have wanted my career to end any other way,” Rhoads said. “We started with a ring and we’re leaving with a ring. It’s really bittersweet, and I’m just forever grateful for the program, for the coaches, for my teammates.
“I’m a completely different person because of this sport, and I know it’s gonna translate in the real world in my job. It’s shown me what discipline means, time management, working with a team. It’s just prepared me for my career, and I’ll forever be thankful for that, and for the friends that I made, and the time that I had.”
