The Dike-New Hartford softball program has concluded its season, and has graduated four seniors who contributed immensely throughout their careers. They helped lead the program to some of its best seasons, including 20 or more wins in all five of their varsity seasons.
“It’s tough, not because they’re great softball players, but because of the people that they are,” Head Coach Tianna Butteris says. “They helped shape this program. I’ve only been part of it for two years, so just even seeing it from last year to this year, they made the program a better place. Not only because they’re good softball players, but because they’re good people and good teammates. And that’s the thing that we tried to focus on so much this year, is building that culture and realizing it’s not always about winning. There’s more to life than winning a softball game. Obviously, most of these girls are going to go on and not play softball. So it’s building human beings for me, and they are four of the best people I know.”
Madde Buskohl, Kiersten Christiansen, Natalie Folkerts and Hanna Steffen each started or made notable contributions in each of their five seasons on varsity. This year, their 10-2 conference record led them to the North Iowa Cedar League-Central title. Butteris on their legacy.
“I think keeping it simple, like yeah, obviously the skills is important, but just remembering that they’re still kids and that they’re allowed to take breaks, and that it’s about having fun and being with our teammates. Because the best thing that I was ever told when I played softball was ‘five years from now, you’re not going to remember the skills, the scores, what you did in a game. You’re going to remember the memories you made with your teammates.’ So I want them to focus on fostering those relationships and just having a fun environment. There’s so much more to winning like than to winning softball games. It’s about people about having fun, about being with your teammates, because there’s only so much time that you get to do this. Only one of them is going on to play softball in college so they don’t get that atmosphere anymore. So just relishing that.”
Continuing her softball career, Buskohl will join the Wartburg College program next school year.
The team went 20-11.
