Former Lady Bulldog pitcher
Vanessa Holm keeps winning
By Fred Long
Correspondent, The Sun

Vanessa Holm winds up for a pitch when she played for Willamina.

When Vanessa Holm was a freshman volleyball player at Willamina High School she had the ability to jump serve the ball, a fairly rare thing in a ninth grader.

And while, in those early days, the ball rarely found its way onto the other team’s court, Vanessa did have the power to put some dents in the far wall of the gym.

Although her focus these days, as a freshman college athlete, is primarily on softball, she has continued to use and build upon that early promise of ability and strength.

This past spring she parlayed a softball scholarship to Clackamas Community College into a place as her team’s stopper -- the first pitcher on the staff and the one the team depends on to keep them in the win column.

Her 1.39 earned run average and 7-to-1 strikeouts per walk ratio helped her team to finish second in their league and fifth in the Northwest Athletic Conference.

Keeping up the torrid pace she set as a Lady Bulldog, Vanessa had 80 strikeouts and 11 walks for the whole season. She was also named -- as a freshman -- the MVP of her team.

Although she has been successful, it has been an adjustment playing at the college level and she has had to work hard both at the athletics and the scholastics.

"It’s been fun, but it was hard at first. For one thing the distance is 43 feet compared to 40 in high school. And then this summer I played on an ASA team and had to make the adjustment back to 40 again.

"And the school work is so much harder. You really have to show up and there is so much reading, but I learned so much more. And the people are really nice. The big difference is that they want to be there and that isn't the way it was in high school."

She also talked about her development as a thrower.

"I feel like I’m ten times better. For one thing, I’ve continued to go to my pitching coach, Ken Roudybush from Brooks. But also in college I don’t do anything but pitch. We have a pitching coach and we practice for three hours non stop. Kim Ostlund is the pitching coach, and she doesn’t try to change anything that Ken teaches me, but just really encourages me."

Vanessa is one of only two pitchers on the team, both freshmen. And although the team lost only three players this year, the coaching staff highly recruited and she expects a deep and talented team next season. Once again she has a full scholarship for next year.

Things are also starting to fall into place for the year after. Vanessa’s goal is to work in dental hygiene and the four-year school in Oregon that offers it is Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls. They have offered her a place for the year after next.

She played softball this summer with the Mid-Valley Lightning Force out of Albany. Willamina’s Bethany Dobie was also on the team.

When the season ended, she joined several of her college teammates on Portland’s Oregon Reign and pitched a one-hitter at the regional playoffs.

She also works at Sky Hawks, a day camp where she coaches kids in softball, soccer and basketball.