Off to the Races Juarez Shines with Akron – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Former Buckeye Jamee Juarez is having a successful rookie season for the Akron Racers in the National Pro Fastpitch League
By Tim Stried, Ohio State Athletics Communications
AKRON, Ohio Perhaps the 124 miles from the Buckeye Field in Columbus to Firestone Stadium in Akron should be an easy journey compared to the 2,200 miles Jamee Juarez traveled from La Puente, Calif., when she first left home in 2004 bound for her freshman season at Ohio State.
Think again.
The miles may be fewer in her second career move,’ but in many ways the gap is greater. Juarez is now in the middle of her first season with the Akron Racers of the National Pro Fastpitch league, and the former Buckeye standout is in a transition from the college game to the professional ranks similar to the one she experienced when she left high school and travel ball for a shot at NCAA Div. I softball in the Big Ten.
“This is definitely tougher,” Juarez said Monday from her new home in Akron. “I adjusted quickly to Ohio State because it was like my second home. Now, I feel like I’m away from both my homes.”
Not that Juarez is complaining, however, and with the kind of start she is having to her rookie season, she is making the adjustment look easy. The Racers, who won the NPF championship in 2005, are off to a 16-8 start and Juarez has been a big reason for that. She leads the pitching staff with an 8-4 record, 69 strikeouts and a 1.77 earned run average.
Compiling numbers like that are common for Juarez, who was a four-time All-Big Ten selection (2004-07) and was named Ohio State’s team MVP three times. She set OSU career pitching records for wins (76), strikeouts (747), shutouts (27), innings pitched (746.1) and appearances (147).
For Juarez, playing at the next level is a different ball game in more ways than just a higher level of competition.
“You’re in charge of yourself,” Juarez said. “Your workout depends on what you want to do, not a coach telling you what to do. I have to know what I need to do, and then do it. At Ohio State, I was told what to do. Here, I do what I want. Our pitching coach, Kim White, came up to me before a game once and asked me what I was going to do, and I looked at her dumbfounded. She kind of laughed and said, at this level, you tell us.’ At Ohio State, I waited for feedback. It’s just different.”
The differences even extend to her selection of pitches.
“Having the chance to shake off my catcher is very different,” Juarez said. “I throw what I want to throw.”
Her statistics are not the only evidence Juarez is adjusting to the pro game. She lives with two of her teammates in a town home complex where most of the players also live. Her cousin, former Oklahoma standout April Valdez, is also on the team, and Juarez knew many of her new teammates even before she joined them from playing against them in travel ball growing up or at Ohio State.
“It’s just a lot of fun,” Juarez said. “It’s a new group of girls and we all are here for only one thing to play softball. It is intense, even more than Ohio State.”
Juarez and the Racers practice Monday and Tuesday from about 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., then usually work out at nearby facility. Juarez and her teammates often give lessons to area youth and play in local charity games. The NPF schedule includes four-game series that begin on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Though she ranks third on the Ohio State all-time RBI list, Juarez has been used nearly exclusively as a pitcher so far this summer because, at the moment, she is one of only two pitchers on the staff. The team’s third pitcher, former Arizona All-American Alicia Hollowell, is currently out of town as she competes with the U.S. National Team. Despite the limited at bats, Juarez has still driven in five runs and hit one homer.
Though Juarez will become more accustomed to the pro game, a few things she learned at Ohio State will never leave her.
“I play with pride for the team across my jersey,” Juarez said. “And I just do the pitching workouts that I learned mainly from (OSU assistant coach) Erica Beach, like the one-minute drill, and then hit when they tell me to.”
Beach, who plays in the NPF for the New England Riptide, was among the first to talk with Juarez about playing pro softball, and Juarez is glad she did.
“When Coach Beach first asked me if I wanted to play, I said that I wasn’t sure and we would see how my senior year went,” Juarez said. “Then after the season, a couple teams were interested and I still had that want-to-play’ mentality. I’m really glad I chose Akron.”
And so are the Racers.
### GO BUCKS! ###
