Posted: June 30, 2009

Doing things for the right reasons and beyond just athletics was a lot of what the 2009 North Shore Conference champion Germantown girls softball team was all about this spring. Especially for their NOW Newspapers All-Suburban selections Jannelle Schroder and Amy Johnson.

When asked what specific memories she will take from a 19-7 highlight-filled season, pitcher/infielder Schroder didn't immediately reach for the dramatic league-title clinching win over Grafton.

Bonds grow outside game

No, she reached for something with a subtler but far larger scope.

"There are a lot of memories," she said, "but one is, is that we always do the Breast Cancer Walk as a team. It works out so well for our group because we get along so well. Half of what we raise goes to the softball program as a fundraiser and the other half to breast cancer research.

"Because that part is so close to us."

That latter reason being that veteran Germantown coach Rich Anderson lost his wife to cancer some years ago and has juggled raising his children, as well as being a teacher and a coach at the same time ever since.

"And he does it so well," Schroder said.

She will attend Concordia University in Mequon and try out for the softball team.

She says she will miss her teammates so much, especially co-captain and catcher Jessie Eichner, whom she called a "great leader."

Schroder was a great leader herself in the eyes of Anderson. He said she was "so valuable" defensively from the shortstop position, but really made an impact as a co-captain and a leader.

"She really took advantage of the role," Anderson said. "She was willing to talk to people when needed."

Johnson, meanwhile, also stepped up when the moments were big for the Warhawks, but is now showing leadership in a more personal fashion.

The feared power hitting first baseman's prodigious blasts harkened back to the old days of former Warhawks All-Stater and collegiate All-American Jackie Aiken.

"Sometimes I just wish they would pitch to me," Johnson said with a laugh, "but I understand if the pitchers didn't see things my way."

She earned third-team All-State honors last year and was named first-team this season after a tremendous 2009 campaign that was created despite not seeing many good pitches.

"I tried to get her to swing at strikes more, but she just wanted to swing at everything," Anderson said. "With great success."

Setting priorities

That kind of output should normally have had her thinking about a wide choice of schools and how many home runs she was going to hit her freshman year in college, but Johnson is going to defer any collegiate softball for at least a year while she gets her academic footing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where hopefully she will get a good start on her long-term goal of becoming a radiological technician.

"I struggle in school a little bit, so for now I want to concentrate and get a good GPA these first couple of semesters," she said.

"I really want to get my feet wet in college and figure out what it's like."

But she doesn't rule out softball in the future.

"If that first year or so goes well (academically), then I'll think about transferring and playing some ball."

These healthy attitudes do not surprise Anderson at all.

"All season long, I've been blessed with just wonderful kids," he said. "Really nice people."