SPORTSBEAT BY PETER JAKEY: Pietsch?s amazing accomplishments at Alma

Playing in the NCAA Division III national softball finals is an experience Mary Pietsch of Rogers City says can?t be put into words. Pietsch, who finished her senior year with the Alma Scots by making two appearances in the national championship series, will remember the camaraderie of the 2005 Alma team and the hard work that was put in to get to that level.

She?ll also remember how close the Scots were to continuing on in the finals. Alma was one out away from defeating Ithaca, New York and moving on, but a close call that didn?t go the Scots? way and bad breaks ended their season. ?There were little bloopers that dropped in,? Pietsch said from her parent?s home in Rogers City. ?It?s a game of inches that could have gone either way.?

PIETSCH, WHO was a superb defender in center field for the Scots and provided speed on the basepaths, was looking for another shot at playing Salisbury, a school that handed Alma its first loss at the finals. St. Thomas, Minnesota went on to win the national championship. I asked Mary how Alma would have matched up with the Division III champs? She watched them in action and said, ?They didn?t look any different than any of the other teams there. It?s just who is on at the moment.? Or the team that gets the breaks. ?Going back twice,? Pietsch said, ?I wouldn?t change a thing.?

Her impressive softball resume in college and high school may not be completely written yet. There may be more as she would love to coach, but hold on, let?s talk about Pietsch?s real success. I may be a sports geek, spending way too much time watching the update scroll at the bottom of the TV screen on ESPN News, but it hasn?t blinded me to the fact that Mary?s major accomplishments haven?t been on the softball diamond, they have been in and out of the classroom.<

P> IN APRIL, Pietsch graduated from Alma with an accumulative grade point average of 4.0. That?s like getting a hit every time up in softball, or never getting caught stealing. As a pitcher, a perfect GPA would be the equivalent of striking out every batter and never throwing a ball. Maybe that?s an exaggeration, because good pitchers have to throw a ball to be successful, but it?s not far from the truth. Pietsch was presented the President?s Cup Award for achieving the highest rank in her class during her freshman, sophomore, and junior years. She was one of four graduates to receive Outstanding Senior Awards.

It doesn?t end there. Along with participating in several extra curricular activities in college, she volunteered at the Masonic Home Rehabilitation Facility in Alma and at the Children?s Therapy Center in Midland. She is now preparing to attend Northwestern University in Chicago in the fall and plans on obtaining a doctorate degree in physical therapy. If she shows the same amount of unmatched desire and drive she had in sports, the classroom, and in other areas of her life, she should have no trouble reaching that goal.