Riverside senior fills leadership role naturally

“Goodbyes always make my throat hurt,” said Charlie Brown in a 1967 Peanuts comic strip. “I need more hellos.”

A couple of months down the road, Riverside softball coach Gerry Bell will know how Charlie Brown felt when he says goodbye to catcher Dianne Kasinger, who by then will have become a four-year letter winner in that sport, along with one each in soccer and volleyball and two in basketball.

Bell is entering his third year as the Rams’ head coach, but before that he was an assistant in the Riverside program for two, and he coached Kasinger for two years before high school when she was involved in the Spokane Youth Sports softball program.

“I’ll tell you, it’s hard to think of her specific qualities because she’s such an all-around great kid,” said Bell. “Even though I’ve got three other four-year starters on the team, Dianne is the natural leader. No one works harder or is more competitive, and she’s very intelligent.

“She’s just a very special kid, one you can always count on.”

Of all her athletic pursuits, softball is her favorite, Kasinger says, although she admits that whatever sport is in season tends to be her favorite. But she’s been playing softball – and baseball – since she was 5 so, as she says, she’s genetically programmed for it.

About that baseball experience?

“I started playing tee ball with the boys when I was little,” she said, “and I played baseball until seventh grade, when I was 12 years old, before I started playing softball.

“Actually, come to think of it, I played baseball in middle school, too. I was able to play both softball and baseball because they were at different times then. I liked to catch, but they wanted to get a boy catcher ready for high school baseball, so I usually played shortstop or third base.”

Kasinger loves being behind the dish, where “it’s just me and the pitcher for most of the game – you never know where the ball’s going, or what’s going to happen. It’s a rush.”

She’s playing through injuries now, with a tender back and strained groin, both sustained during this past basketball season as a key playoff contributor to Riverside’s Class 2A third-place finish – the first time the Rams have ever brought home any hoop hardware from either the boys or girls state tournament.

She missed most of the regular season after fracturing two vertebrae diving for a loose ball in an early practice. She lost her starting spot but still played big in the district tournament and then at state.

“The groin injury actually hurts more than my back right now, and squatting doesn’t help,” she said. “But I’m going to try not to miss any time. Coach will tell me to rest it now because league games are more important, but I’ll tell him I’m a senior. It’s my last year.”

Bell knows that battle’s coming, too.

“Dianne’s playing hurt, limping through it right now,” he said. “I can’t ask her if she’s hurting, because she won’t tell me the truth.

“She’s a great example of leadership coming from within the team instead of from outside. She’s very mature, and she knows when to lead by example and when she needs to be more vocal. She’s a wonderful field general and is aware of everything going on around her.”

The goodbyes, when they come, won’t be easy for Kasinger either.

“Sports have shaped my high school experience,” she said. “They’ve kept me away from the temptations that are available for high school students and have taught me about responsibility. I’m going to miss them.”

Kasinger hopes to continue playing, although she’s not sure where she might get the chance. This summer, she’ll play on an area select team, which will compete in a national event in Spokane that should be well-scouted by college coaches.