Amanda Larson Commits to FDLTCC Softball

Wes Vork-NSO

July 28

Wes Vork-NSO

While most coaches have taken the summer to look at players for next season, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College softball team is continuing to add players for this season. On Monday, the Thunder received a verbal commitment from Moose Lake-Willow River shortstop Amanda Larson to play softball this upcoming season.

“We had Amanda up to the school for a visit about a month or so ago,” recalled Thunder coach Kerry Rodd. “At that time she was really planning on going somewhere else for school and not play softball. We were able to stay in touch with her throughout the summer and on Monday we were excited to hear that she wants to come here for school and to play ball.”

Larson has been a starter for 3 years and was a leader for the Rebels this season. As a shortstop, Larson has a strong arm and a good glove and is expected to add speed to the line up next spring.

“Amanda is a solid player and the type of player we’ll need to continue to be successful,” said Rodd. “We really felt a need to upgrade our speed and getting Amanda will add to what we are trying to accomplish.”

The Thunder had a breakthrough season last year after finishing in the top 10 in the NJCAA polls for most of the season. At one point the Thunder were ranked #4 in the country and they were ranked in the top 10 for nearly the entire season.

“We made a lot of in-roads with our team last year,” commented Rodd. “We had a lot of second year players, but the coming year will be all about a brand new group of kids and how they handle playing college ball.”

The Thunder are bringing in a very athletic and talented group of freshman that will be led by Anna Engelemeier of Hermantown, Lisa Muehlberger of Duluth Central, Mia Saunders of Carlton and Esko’s Kortney Lindberg.

“Engelmeier is a great talent and played for the state championship Hermantown team,” Rodd said. “Muehlberger is a strong power hitter who played for the Minnesota X-Plosion along with Saunders this summer and Lindberg is a crafty left handed hitter who will be a tough out in our lineup.”

The Thunder have also added a pair of Floodwood athletes in Jennah Bailey and Taylor Heavirland, Jade Kristofferson of Rush City, Emily Peterson from Ogilvie and Brittany Yagoda of Denfeld will be back with the team after spending last year focusing on her studies as a freshman at FDLTCC.

“Engelmeier, Heavirland, Peterson, Yagoda, Bailey and Larson will all provide us with very good speed,” Rodd stated. “We also return Steph Engelmeier and Megan Johnson who are also extremely quick.”

The Thunder will hold fall tryouts just after Labor Day and practices will run 14 days before shutting things down until January 15th when pitchers and catchers will get together. Entire team practices will begin on February 15th.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com