Lane joins pro ranks

TOM HARRIS
Star Beacon

May 15, 2008 03:13 am

— Sabrina Lane hardly had time to change caps in an off-season that was measured in hours.
For Lane, who is the head softball coach at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., the collegiate season ended Sunday, when the Red Flash dropped a 4-3, 10-inning heartbreaker to Robert Morris in the third round of the Northeast Conference Tournament.
On Tuesday, the 1997 Conneaut graduate began her duties as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia Force of National Pro Fastpitch.
“I won’t be in Philadelphia for the morning practice,” Lane said Monday. “But I’ll be there for the afternoon practice.”
The daunting schedule will be a fact of life for Lane throughout the summer. She is still the softball coach at St. Francis and will be making recruiting trips and taking care of other matters for the Red Flash during the professional season. She will have area starts Courtney Francis of Jefferson and Katie McMellen of Edgewood on her squad as incoming freshman next season.
This is not an unusual situation in the NPF. Force head coach Jennifer Teague is an assistant at Eastern Michigan.
“It’s going to be crazy, absolutely,” Lane said. “But it’s going to be a lot of fun, too, and a chance to work with some of the best softball players in the country.”
Last summer, recruiting took Lane to California, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and a few other places, and she worked a camp in Tennessee. There is much to be done this summer, too.
“I’m a little nervous about it, but I’m pretty good at time management. Most of the coaches in pro softball do this, and they’re all able to do it,” Lane said.
Lane and Teague first met during Lane’s three-year tenure as head coach at Saginaw Valley State.
“We talked about this a little while I was working in Michigan,” Lane said. “Then I saw she had a position
open, and I emailed her. This is great opportunity.”
Lane is anxious to get started in her new job, although she isn’t quite sure of the scope of her duties.
“They already have a pitching coach, so I won’t being doing that,” she said. “I’ll probably be doing a lot of work with the fielders — the infielders and outfielders. I’ll do anything they have for me.”
There will be no shortage of talent. The players Lane will be working with have proven themselves at every level.
“I’m not sure what to expect,” Lane said. “There won’t be any Olympians in the league this year. They’re involved in the Bound 4 Beijing Tour. But I’ll still be working with elite players, people who play the game at the highest level. It’s something I want to do.”
Would Lane, who was a catcher and third baseman during her collegiate career at Gannon, like to get on the field and play with the pros?
“Absolutely,” she said. “But I’m not quite at their level. Coaching is better. It gives me a chance to stay close to game.”
While she will busy juggling her various responsibilities this summer, Lane does welcome the role of an assistant coach.
“I think being an assistant will be great,” Lane said. “The head coach has a lot on her plate. It will be kind of nice to just do my job and not have to worry about all the other stuff.”
She hasn’t had a lot of time to look back on it, but Lane and the Red Flash had a very successful 2008 campaign. Finishing with a 24-34 (11-6 Northeast Conference) record, St. Francis won more games this season than in any year since 2002. And the 11 conference wins are eight more than the Red Flash managed in 2007, Lane’s first year at the school.
“Oh, it was so much fun this year,” Lane said. “Everything seemed to click. We swept Pitt (in a doubleheader, April 30). At the beginning of the year, the prediction was that we’d finish eighth in the conference and not even make the tournament. But we ended up getting the third seed. It was a big deal, and a big, big turnaround for us.”
For her part in engineering the turnaround, Lane was named the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year. She is the first softball coach at St. Francis to receive that honor. In addition, three of her players earned all-conference honors.
“We had a great season,” she said.
The wins are important, of course, but not the most important thing.
“My most important role as a college coach is to take quality athletes, motivate them and help them to become great adults,” Lane said. “At the end of the day, that is what is really important.”
To have softball as the vehicle to help young people begin their journeys is an opportunity Lane treasures.
“Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without sports,” she said. “I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t pick up a ball. I’m really not sure. I would have issues if there wasn’t sports in my life, and my life would probably be pretty boring.”
The Force will finish spring training with a four-game series against the Netherlands National Team the final weekend of May. They open league play the first week in June, and will be in Akron to face the Racers, July 2-5.

Harris is a freelance writer from Ashtabula Township.