Even though she’s young, Kent-Meridian High’s Shelby Gardiner is a seasoned leader amongst her peers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Last year, as a junior on a fastpitch team full of seniors, it was Gardiner’s long history with diamond sports that pushed her to be an example for her teammates. Now a senior, Gardiner is able to pass on her knowledge to the girls around her, many of whom have never played softball before.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gardiner first began playing baseball with her cousins as a kid. In grade school, she got her first taste of organized softball, and it was history from there on out.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Starting off as a third baseman, Gardiner switched to first when she began playing for the Royals two years ago. This year, she’s stepped up and switched once again to catcher, a position she thought was boring until she experienced it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“(It was) hard at first because I’m used to being good at the position that I play,” Gardiner said. “I like it now. You’re in every play even when the ball doesn’t get hit.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Although being a diverse player, Gardiner wanted to hone her skills. That’s when she joined the Mosquito Squad, a South King County-based fastpitch club team. There, Gardiner was able to improve her knowledge of the game and exercise her leadership skills as well.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“She’s a leader by example … in the way she presents herself and her play on the field,” said Mosquito Squad coach Jessica Ventoza.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ventoza said Gardiner’s a power hitter and makes solid contact every time. Gardiner admits that’s an improvement from before where she just wouldn’t swing at the ball at all.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I just psyched myself out and wasn’t confident in what I could do,” Gardiner said. “But this year, I’m hitting the ball.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gardiner’s slugging percentage and batting average for her club team is .500. With the extra experience, she’s able to bring the lessons she’s learned back to her teammates at K-M and inspire the other girls to follow suit.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“If I can do it, then the other girls will get motivated and inspired to do it too,” Gardiner said.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even though she’s young, Kent-Meridian High’s Shelby Gardiner is a seasoned leader amongst her peers. Last year, as a junior on a fastpitch team full of seniors, it was Gardiner’s long history with diamond sports that pushed her to be an example for her teammates. Now a senior, Gardiner is able to pass on her knowledge to the girls around her, many of whom have never played softball before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":23400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23399"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}