Players for all-star team named for game against U.S. Olympians

Janessa Roche calls it the biggest thing to happen to her since playing in a regional tournament in Alaska as a youngster on the Sandpoint All Stars softball team.

June 12, in an exhibition doubleheader at Franklin Park Softball Complex, Roche gets her chance to play against the United States Women’s Olympic softball team.

“Honored is exactly the word I would use,” said Roche, who just completed her freshman year at Henderson State University, a Division II school in Arkansas. “Most of the world won’t be able to do or even think about doing it. I can hardly realize it’s going to happen to me.”

The USA national team will travel across the country, beginning May 17, to play exhibitions against teams in 22 different cities. Spokane is the eighth stop on the tour and believed to be the only doubleheader.

“I found out at the (Amateur Softball Association) national convention in October about the tour,” said Spokane ASA commissioner and Spokane team coach Fuzzy Buckenberger. “I asked for a date, they said absolutely. My understanding was they are playing against all colleges except our all-stars.”

Major sponsor is Hallmark Automotive Group (Hyundai/Isuzu). Games will begin at 5 p.m. Ticket costs are $15 for adults ($10 for advance purchases) and $10 for students and seniors ages 60 and older ($5 if purchased in advance). There is no reserved seating.

The Olympians completed the first phase of the tour, that began last February, with 25 games against nationally ranked colleges in California, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Arizona. It spent April at the Tour of Italy.

Roche, who played infield and batted .341 for Henderson State, which went 34-13 and broke nearly every record in school history, is one of 15 players with local ties who will play in the twin bill against a team headed for the Athens Olympics in August.

They’ll face the likes of Olympic stars Lisa Fernandez and Leah O’Brien-Amico, and up-and-coming pitcher Jennie Finch.

Finch, who pitched Arizona to the NCAA championship, was a finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and was Honda Award winner for softball as the nation’s top player in 2001.

Fernandez, a 5-foot-6 pitching dynamo, is, at age 33, the senior member of the U.S. Olympic team. She played in 1990 on the ISF World Champions and has been a member of the last two Oympic gold medalists.

First baseman-outfielder O’Brien-Amico, who spoke here at the Youth Awards Luncheon in 2002; left-handed pitcher Lori Harrigan; and centerfielder Laura Berg are also two-time gold medalist Olympians.

The 18-player team also includes Stacey Nuveman, a catcher who conducted a clinic at Whitworth College last year and played here with a national team in 2001.

But that wasn’t the USA women’s team that has compiled a 185-16 record in international competition and since 1974 has won seven world championships, six Pan American Games titles and the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

The 2004 team is coached by Arizona coach Mike Candrea.

Spokane all-stars, said Buckenberger, were chosen during a tryout process that attracted nearly 50 players.

Roche will be joined by others currently playing collegiately such as pitcher DeDe Dougherty (Coeur d’Alene) now at Tampa, Fla.; California State Hayward infielder Shawna Foster (Post Falls); Butler second baseman JoAnna Gonzalez (Ferris); Coker College’s Kaylene Fountain (Lewis and Clark); Delaware State’s Jessica Murray (Shadle Park); and Seattle University’s Stephanie Stone (Gonzaga Prep) and Amanda Nilles (North Central).

Vanessa Shelton, Rikki Jackson and Hannah Shelley, who hit 17 home runs this year, played for Community Colleges of Spokane. Alana Klaus and Patti Stranger from Whitworth; Janessa Karstens, who pitched at Mead and is now coach at Edmonds Community College; and University High players Molly Owen and Christine Keeton are others with local ties.

“I’ve been watching them play for a long time,” said U-Hi’s Owen of the Olympians. “My sister played against a lot of them in college. It’s a great opportunity.”

Buckenberger, who hopes to attract 2,500 fans to the exhibition, said his team is playing with every intent to win. To that end he has bolstered the roster with University of Washington pitcher Tia Bollinger and University of California hurler Kristina Thorson, who beat the Huskies recently to run her record to 21-3.

Eric Sawyer of the Spokane Regional Sports Commission called the game against the Olympians a “prestige event.”

“It builds our resume at the national and international level,” he said. “Fuzzy’s reputation at the national level is what makes this happen.”

Tickets are on sale at Hallmark Hyundai, 8801 E. Sprague in Spokane Valley; Vyper Sportswear-Cuda Apparel, 2015 N. Division; and at the Spokane Amateur Softball Associationoffice at Franklin Park, or by calling or e-mailing Buckenberger, (483-4653, fuzzybuck@msn.com).