Glaze a dream on field

Post Falls senior Heather Glaze eats, sleeps and breathes softball.

When she sleeps, she dreams about it.

Making a spectacular play in the field and knocking her first over-the-fence homer seem to be recurring themes come sleepy time.

“I dream of playing the ‘Perfect Game,’ and everything – oh, yeah … definitely,” said Glaze, a three-year letter winner and the Trojans’ team captain. “I’m running along when I’m playing center field, and it’s going to go over the fence and I jump up on the fence and catch it.

“Oh, yeah, I have those dreams.”

As No. 1 seed Post Falls readies itself for an opening-round matchup with No. 4 Sandpoint in the 4A Region I tournament Tuesday at Post Falls, Glaze has some other things on her mind as well.

“We had a chance to take the whole Inland Empire League, but we lost (Tuesday),” Glaze said, referring to her team’s relative success against the three 5A teams in the IEL. “But our goals are to win regionals and go to state and do the best that we can.

“I think we can make it there and place at least as well as we did last year, and maybe even better.”

Glaze first picked up a bat and ball when she was 3 years old and credits her father, Dan, as her primary inspiration and her mother, Debbie, as her biggest fan. She recounts an unusual play during last year’s state tourney, where the Trojans finished fourth, as the highlight of her career.

“I got in a pickle at state last year,” Glaze said. “I was on third base and my coach told me to stay, but I ran, and they tried to throw me out at home, and I ran back and forth and back and forth like 40 times, I think.

“And the other team didn’t make any mistakes – it was perfectly executed – and I just dove into home plate and I was safe because they couldn’t get the tag down.”

She says she’ll work at her dad’s mattress store after graduation, adding that attending North Idaho College remains a possibility.

“College is in front of me, so I’m all over the place, you know,” Glaze said. “If I go to college, I definitely want to play softball.

“I love it so much. I look forward to the season before it even starts and I miss it right after it’s over, you know – it’s a softball addiction.”