SPOKANE, Wash. — Ferris High School graduate Katelyn Strauss has softball in her blood. Her parents even met on the city softball field behind Ferris.
After starring on the mound at Ferris for four years, Strauss took her talents to a division three school and helped accomplish something no other athletic program in school history ever had.
Growing up, Strauss wanted to be a softball pitcher just like her older sister Michelle.
"My sister Michelle played softball all the way from when she was in 10U to playing for a couple of years at Spokane Falls Community College. I always looked up to her and wanted to be a pitcher just like her, so I followed in her footsteps," Strauss said.
When she eventually arrived at Ferris and began pitching for the Saxons, it was not smooth sailing right away.
"I was definitely extremely wild, but I still was third in the league in strikeouts, so I guess I was effectively wild," Strauss said.
Strauss dialed it in by adding a screwball to her repertoire. She was on track to break the GSL strikeout record her senior year before the season was shortened due to Covid-19.
"I went and played club softball all summer and traveled to places like Arizona and Texas for college exposure tournaments and tried to get recruited through that. It was pretty tough because all of the college softball teams were getting extra years of eligibility, so if I went to a college, it was goin to be packed with softball players, so I did not know what to do," Strauss said.
She eventually committed to NJCAA division III North Dakota State College of Science. After arriving on campus, she had another setback right away.
"In my first practice back from Covid isolation, we were working on baserunning and I slid into second base and messed up my knee badly and ended up in a walking boot for two and a half months," Strauss said.
With her injury, Strauss played her freshman spring season at less than 100 percent, but still broke the school strikeout record by 118 K's and led Division III with 323 en route to being named conference and regional MVP and a first team All-American.
"You really need to dig deep and push yourself because you only get to play softball at a competitive level for so long. I had something to work towards and I tried to beat the strikeout record and do it for myself and my team," Strauss said.
This season, Strauss and her teammates set their sights on loftier goals.
"We wanted to become national champions. Halfway through the season I developed the mindset that I would not settle for anything less than first place," Strauss said.
The Wildcats did just that using a six run bottom of the seventh inning in the national championship game to defeat Corning and win the first national title in any sport in school history.
"You can hear about it happening, you see it in the Hallmark movies and never imagine that it could actually happen. The energy was huge, there were tears shed, it was insane," Strauss said.
Strauss was named the Most Outstanding Pitcher of the NJCAA World Series and graduated upon her return to North Dakota. Now, she is on to bigger things.
"You don't really get to experience the big things in life unless you push yourself to be more competitive and play at the next level. I ultimately decided to take the offer from the University of North Dakota to continue my career," Strauss said.
As Strauss makes the jump up to division one, she will face much heftier competition, but she believes she is ready for the challenge and looks to continue making Spokane and the Ferris community proud.
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