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Senior trio guided Seneca softball to state’s biggest stage · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Senior trio guided Seneca Softball the state's biggest stage. Written
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  by Brian Hoxey, this article is being read by an
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  automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Four years ago,
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  Lexi Buis, Cameron Steccan, and Tessa Cruel all began their
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  journey as varsity softball players for Seneca High School on
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  Saturday in the is Class two A state championship game.
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  Their amazing and record breaking trip came to an end
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  with a runner up finish after a three to one
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  loss to Carterville at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in
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  Peoria to end the season thirty nine three. Those three
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  young ladies have been tremendous leaders, even to a certain
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  extent since they were all freshmen. Seneca coach Brian Holman said,
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  they've been through some good times and bad times, but
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  this year they were the reason we never wavered and
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  stayed on track. Sometimes as a coach, you sell your
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  soul as far as handing the reins of leadership to
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  high school athletes. Sometimes those kids can't handle that responsibility,
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  but Cam, Tessa and Lexi took that challenge and ran
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  with it. They have been as good as it gets
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  from a coaching perspective, and now we'll just have to
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  find six more shoes to fill. In the past four seasons,
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  the Fighting Irish have compiled a sparking one hundred and
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  twenty nine to eighteen record, including three regional titles. Before
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  this season's thrilling run. The teams also went fifty nine
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  to one in Tri County Conference games, with four titles
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  and a current fifty three game conference winning streak. I
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  think everyone in and around this team knew we had
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  the talent to be playing in the game. We just played,
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  Holman said after the championship contest. I really felt one
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  of my biggest jobs as a coach this year was
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  to try and make every game in front of us
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  feel the same, no matter the context. That's odd hard job,
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  especially when the postseason rolls around. In that goal you
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  haven't really talked much about is a few wins away.
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  I'm not sure if I did a great job with that,
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  but the girls sure did. They did exactly what we
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  asked of them for forty two games this season. It
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  was just an amazing season. Stekhan said that making the
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  state was a goal, but the team knew it would
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  more than likely have to find a way to defeat
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  Beecher along the way, a squad they'd lost to in
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  the previous two years sectional title games. These four years
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  have been so amazing. Stekhan said, Yeah, the last two
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  were disappointing, but this year we were determined to not
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  let that happen again. I'm just so thankful to be
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  part of this team and part of what it accomplished.
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  Our goal was just to get here, just to get
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  to State. Most of us have played at this complex
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  and on this field with our travel teams, but it
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  really hit different coming here representing Seneca High School in
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  our community. It really was an honor. Kruel said her
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  emotions were changing second to second as she thought about
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  of all the practices, bus rides, games, and just hanging
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  out times over the past four years. My emotions are
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  really split right now, Krol said, I'm not really disappointed
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  that we finished second, because we came here, showed we
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  belonged here and played as hard as we could. I'm
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  sad because this was my last time playing for Seneca
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  and last time playing with some of the best teammates
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  I could have wished for. I'm happy because this season
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  was just an amazing journey being my senior year. To
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  be here right now watching my teammates taking pictures holding
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  that trophy is so cool. We all worked very hard
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  all season to be the best we could be. We
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  didn't actually ever talk about having a goal to make
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  it to State. It was just something we all knew
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  we could do if we played like we knew we could,
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  Bui said she reflected on so many memories on the
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  bus ride to Peoria on Saturday. She added she felt
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  one of the biggest strengths of this year's squad was
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  the ability to stay in the moment and not look ahead.
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  I'm just so proud of everyone on this team, Bowie said.
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  Losing to Beecher the past two years was so frustrating.
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  It was a little like today where we played a
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  really good game but just fell short. I was thinking
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  on the bus ride here today, how no matter the outcome,
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  this team has accomplished something no other Seneca softball team
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  had done. I'm just so proud of what we've done.
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  Coach Holman is always talking about not making a situation
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  or a game bigger than it truly is. You just
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  have to treat every game the same. I feel like
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  even today playing in the championship game, everyone did that.