Softball Legend Returns to Coach Girls Softball Camp

Coach Alicia shares her Athletic Hall of Honor medal and her game jersey with softball campers. Photo courtesy of Laurie Luckhardt

Manchester Girl’s Softball met a legend last week.

In 1981, when Alicia Seegert was a sophomore at Manchester High School, she lived for softball. But that year, voters voted down a millage and one of the things the school had to cut was softball. Women have always had a hard time finding the funding and the encouragement needed for them to excel as athletes, so when Manchester voters took women’s softball away, many girls and their families probably would have accepted it as just the way of the world.

But the Seegerts didn’t. Alicia left Manchester High, graduated from Father Gabriel Richard in Ann Arbor, and by the end of her freshman year at the University of Michigan she had set the Big Ten Conference record for batting average, for hits, and for RBIs.

She batted .418 as a freshman, and the record stood for 8 years.

Alicia was All Big Ten four years in a row, and twice named to the All American team (once on first team, once on second). She was the first Wolverine softball player to ever make All American First Team. In 1987 she was named Michigan’s Female Athlete of the Year. In 1992 she was named to the Big Ten All Decade team, and in 2006 she was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.

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Softball Camp had to meet inside the first day because of rain. Photo courtesy of Laurie Luckhardt

This summer, for three days, Manchester Area Youth Sports held its first ever girl’s softball camp. For girls as young as third grade and as old as eighth grade, MAYS set out to educate in the most basic of skills.

Girls were shown how to wear the glove, how to hold the bat, and the basic breakdown of the swing. They hit balls off tees, then struck at soft tosses. They learned to catch, and to throw. They learned how to run the bases, and finally how slide.

And Alicia was there for all three days, hands on girls arms, placing little bodies into the perfect position to hit the ball with the most power, or the best posture to send a pitch in over home plate. She brought her own sliding mat, and personally showed them how an All-American takes home.

Our girls were introduced to the sport of softball by one of the greatest women Michigan has ever seen play the sport. And she was one of them, having grown up in the same town, and gone to the same schools. She was there to show them how a Manchester girl can go from the first nervous bunt of a third grader all the way to Wolverine Valhalla next to Gerald Ford, Fielding Yost and scores of Olympians.

On the last day, the girls slid into base on a slip and slide.

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Photo courtesy of Laurie Luckhardt

Laurie McGee Luckhardt who organized the camp with Joanne Kemner, was the one to reach out to Alicia, who now teaches physical education in Saline. “She was an immediate yes,” Luckhardt said of Seegert. “Alicia is very passionate about softball and loves to help young girls around the state develop their skills to become the best player they can be.”

Luckhardt described Seegert as hands on all the time. “She taught the game of softball so that every girl – regardless of skill level — could understand and relate.”

By the end of the first day, she knew all the kid's names, and had built an immediate bond with them. Seegert was systematic in her approach to teaching, clearly as skilled as an educator as she ever was as a player, breaking every aspect of the game down into step-by-step sequences that every player could grasp. Seegert also brought some older girls as helpers to serve as role models and demonstrate techniques a they were taught.

But more than the skills, Alicia brought energy to the girls. Three days at a camp can only convey so much. In order for the girls to really become athletes, they needed to come away from the camp with passion for the sport, courage to pursue it, and hope that their work will all pay off in the end. Alicia brought all of that to the girls.

Luckhardt tells the story best: “Alicia brought her Hall of Honor medal to camp to show the girls.  She let the girls hold it and pass it around.  She also brought her game jersey and let girls try it on.  By seeing these things, the girls realized that hard work can and does pay off."

“She also gave a speech about how she worked hard and was shy and quiet off the field, but when she stepped on the field her attitude changed.  She told the girls, they needed a “softball attitude”.

“On the last day of camp, Alicia demonstrated a head first slide on the slip and slide.  All the girls went crazy with excitement!”

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Photo courtesy of Laurie Luckhardt

24 girls came to the first MAYS softball camp this year. They were taught by a rare coach.

By the end of camp, the girls were hitting the ball farther, they were throwing with sharper accuracy, and they were charging ground balls with determination and courage.

 If you have questions about the MAYS Girl's Softball Camp contact Laurie Luckhardt at lmluckhardt@gmail.com

photo courtesy of Laurie Luckhardt

photo courtesy of Laurie Luckhardt

Editor's Note: We originally left out the fact that Joanne Kemner co-organized the camp. Sorry Joanne! 

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by Fritz Swanson

Fritz Swanson has written for The Believer, the Christian Science Monitor, Print Magazine, McSweeney's, Esopus, LSA Magazine, and The Mid-American Review. He serves as a trustee on the Manchester District Library Board. He's the designer and publisher of The Manchester Mirror.

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