WOODLAND — Her dream started nearly 10 years ago.
Emily Holt was introduced to a high school softball pitcher from a nearby town and was in awe.
“I looked up to her,” Holt said, referring to Ridgefield’s Dani Nelson. “I remember thinking, one day, I want to be even better than that. I set my goal to be the starting pitcher for Woodland and to make it to a Division I school.”
Holt, a junior from Woodland, has been the starting pitcher for the Beavers since her freshman season. And in November of her senior year, she expects to sign a letter of intent to pitch for the University of Nebraska. She announced in February that she has accepted Nebraska’s scholarship offer and now has to wait until signing period — next fall.
It seems like such a long time, too. After all, Holt is just beginning her junior softball season.
But with a goal that began when she was 7 years old, what’s another year-and-a-half until she actually goes to college?
Until then, Holt promises to enjoy the final two seasons of high school softball, have fun with her teammates, and celebrate the scholarship with family and friends.
Even if it is her athletic scholarship, she said it really should be dedicated to all who have helped her in the past decade.
“It’s a big prize for everybody,” Holt said. “My parents, they get tears in their eyes just thinking about it. It’s for everybody. My brothers. My grandparents, my uncles, my aunts.”
And her teammates.
“Team is a big thing for me,” Holt said. “I’m always talking about team.”
Softball Team Holt started when she was 7, with her father, Brian, sitting on a bucket, catching ball after ball. And, especially in the early days, chasing wild pitch after wild pitch.
Dani Nelson’s father, Dan, was Emily’s first pitching coach. Emily Holt recalled after one long day of practice, when her father asked Dan Nelson: “Is this ever going to stop?”
Emily Holt said she never wavered from her initial goals: Varsity pitcher. Earn a scholarship.
“It’s not easy. A lot of hard work. A lot of dedication,” she said. “There were a lot of things I didn’t get to do that I wanted to do.”
A big dance at school? Not if there was a softball tournament that weekend.
“There were times I wanted to hang out with my friends more, but I needed to pitch,” Holt said. “I had to stay straight on my goals.
“Now my school’s getting paid for. It’s all worth it now. It’s exciting.”
While Dad has been living “in the backyard” with Emily for so long, her mother, Kelly, has taken care of coordinating all the schedules and the traveling.
“Whether it’s pouring down rain, or it’s over 110 degrees, she’s always there,” Emily said.
Still, even with all the support, even with help from teammates, one needs individual talent to land an athletic scholarship.
Holt showed promise her freshman year with a 2.37 earned run average. She went 9-12 and struck out 149 batters in 139 innings.
A year later, she showed considerably more than promise. She made “The Leap.”
Holt went 20-8 with a 0.62 ERA, striking out 314 batters in 193 innings, leading the Beavers to a third-place finish at the Class 2A state tournament.
The trip to state was special because it was the first appearance for Woodland fastpitch. The Beavers made it to the 1982 slowpitch state tournament.
“I remembering going over there and it was just a ton of fun talking about how exciting it was to be the first team to state,” Holt said. “We were so pumped. And we were always together there as a team.”
Woodland won the first two games of the tourney to reach the semifinals. The Beavers would lose that game, then win two in a row to finish third.
“That was a big accomplishment for us. Going in our first year and getting third. That was amazing,” Holt said.
“It’s so hard to put into words how fun it was. It was unbelievable to be there with the girls and the coaches. It was a blast.”
Which takes us to 2010, and the expectations.
The Beavers scheduled some of the best programs from higher classifications — Prairie, Columbia River, Mountain View — in the non-league season, all in an effort to improve.
“Our goal is state,” Holt said. “We have that in mind every day in practice.”
With a Division I talent in the pitching circle, and a quality team that features only one senior, if the Beavers do make it to state this year, they certainly will be looking to do it again in 2011.
By then, Emily Holt will be ready to fulfill that promise to herself of becoming a college pitcher.