Getting back to form: Seddon, softball team look to erase past
Kari Seddon dominated Mid-American Conference play two seasons ago, going 8-1 with a 1.60 earned run average.
What the statistics do not show is how much time the junior pitcher was spending in the trainer’s room.
Seddon started feeling pain in the right elbow during the season, but said she knew she had to finish the season for her team.
“My trainer became my best friend that year,” she said. “I did a lot of work just getting ready for the next game because I was in pain, but we were in the middle of the season and I had to go.”
After the season came to an end, Seddon was forced into a decision. Her ulnar collateral ligament was torn and she could either elect to get Tommy John surgery or rehab the elbow.
Seddon said it came down to what her doctor believed was best for her ability to continue playing afterwards. Surgery was the answer.
That meant Seddon would not be able to throw a softball until December 2009, ruling out the possibility of playing in the 2009 season.
RELEARNING SOFTBALL
Having pitched since she was five, staying away from softball until December was not easy on Seddon.
“I basically had a new elbow,” she said. “I had to get my motion, extension and just had to teach myself to play the game of softball again.”
She went from a first-team All-MAC selection to holding a stat book and helping her teammates from the dugout.
Seddon could only do so much as the team went 12-31 and 4-17 in the MAC. She admitted it was tough to accept.
Seddon was not used to feeling helpless for her teammates from the circle or the plate.
She continued to work with trainers and, although the success rate is not high for players coming back from Tommy John surgery, coach Margo Jonker said she had confidence in Seddon’s ability to make the comeback.
Jonker said it came down to her competitiveness and athletic prowess because she would not let herself stay outside the circle this season.
So when Seddon was finally able to take the circle for Central this season, it was a relief.
ON THE WAY BACK
Seddon said she is only at around 90 percent health-wise, and she still feels some pain in her elbow, but it is more the result of not being used to pitching than the injury.
Jonker said Seddon has learned to pitch again and, because of that, she is learning how to throw all her pitches again.
“Since the surgery, her shoulder and elbow feel different for certain pitches than it did before, so she has to figure out how it is supposed to feel with how the elbow is now,” she said.
After Seddon started the year batting as well as pitching, Jonker decided it is more important to have her in the circle after Seddon felt some elbow pain.
But Jonker said she knows what MAC competition is like and what having a pitcher such as Seddon in the circle can do to make a difference for the Chippewas this year.
“The Mid-American Conference has excellent pitching, and Kari is in that elite group,” she said. “Obviously, after having the year off, it is a challenge to get into the pitching form that she had before.”
