Nederland Gaat Naar Beijing! – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Former Buckeye Kristi DeVries helps lead Dutch national softball team to 2008 Olympic Games
By Tim Stried, Ohio State Athletics Communications
COLUMBUS, Ohio The headline on a website for the Netherlands’s national softball team said it all.
Het is gelukt!!! Het Nederlands Softball team gaat naar de Olympische Spelen 2008 in Beijing!!!!’
That reads, It is true! The Netherlands softball team is going to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing!’ for those who do not speak Dutch, but even if that is the case, the excitement and pride is easy to see as the Dutch qualified last month for their second Olympic games and first since 1996.
Helping lead the way was former Buckeye Kristi DeVries, who was a part of some of the best Ohio State softball teams in program history from 2001-04. A native of Corona, Calif., both sets of her grandparents were born and raised in the Netherlands before immigrating to the United States.
DeVries has been playing with the Dutch national team since she obtained dual citizenship in 2004, but the process of propelling the Netherlands, and herself, to the Olympics has been a long process.
“It didn’t really sink in for a couple days,” DeVries said. “For awhile, we would just look at each and say, we’re going to the Olympics’ and it was almost weird to say it. I just look back on all the sacrifices I’ve made. I never went on vacation or went out with all my friends on weekends because I was playing softball. To work so hard your whole life and then reach the top, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
But the work is not over yet for DeVries. The Dutch national team that qualified for the Olympics was made up of 19 players, but only 15 will be selected to travel to Beijing, China, next summer for the Games. DeVries battled a couple injuries earlier this year that kept her from competing at her highest level, but she hopes that with time to heal and train, she will be with her team again next summer.
“If I get back to my caliber and pitch the way I know I can pitch, I have a good chance to make the team,” DeVries said. “And on our team, I’m the only pitcher who also hits, so knowing that we can only take 15, you have to be able to play another position or hit and I can do both. But regardless, everyone will have to work their butt off to make the team.”
In her career for the Buckeyes, DeVries won 59 games, struck out 624 batters and notched 19 shutouts. Those three numbers rank third all-time in Ohio State history, and her 1.52 career earned run average is second. In 2002 when the Buckeyes went 55-14, DeVries won 12 consecutive games and she would go on to earn team MVP honors as a senior in 2004.
“Ohio State was a great experience,” DeVries said. “To win a Big Ten championship like they did this season would have been awesome, but going to the Olympics is on a whole other level.”
In the Olympic qualifying tournament in Ronchi, Italy, the chief softball rival and longtime nemesis of the Netherlands, Italy, was again in the way of the Dutch team’s Olympic dream. The Italians sent DeVries and the Dutch to the loser’s bracket early in the qualifier, but a rematch in the championship game meant the 2008 Games were on the line.
“We had to beat Greece first to have a rematch with Italy in the final game,” DeVries said. “We did that and then had to face Italy, who had beat us twice already in pool play, but we just went out there and played our guts out. We knew it was this or nothing. If we lost, that meant no Olympics, and it came down to the last pitch in extra-innings.”
The thrill of qualifying is made even more special considering softball will not be a part of the 2012 Olympics or perhaps any other Games. That is because of, in part, the dominating success of the United States’ softball team, once referred to as The Real Dream Team’ in Sports Illustrated.
“Hopefully it’s not the last time softball will be in the Olympics,” DeVries said.
And while that is a work in progress, so is a training regimen for DeVries, who plans to be in Beijing next summer with the Dutch Olympic team to be a part of history.
### GO BUCKS! ###
