5-Star Performer: Volk earns 100th win with St. Paul softball

ST. PAUL, Neb. (KSNB) - It’s a milestone eight years in the making.

“we knew last year toward the end of the season,” St. Paul senior shortstop Karlie Vieth said. “We were planning for a big win and then district finals didn’t go our way, so we had to wait until this year.”

St. Paul softball coach Kali Volk is officially in the 100 career wins club.

“I was just really shocked and excited for them to be excited,” she said. “It’s just all a building of the team because that’s what it’s about. It’s a tea thing. It’s not just one person, it was the whole entire team.”

But coming into the season-opener against O’Neill, Volk says she didn’t even know.

“I was completely surprised, I had no idea at all,” she said.

“We tried to keep it mostly in the circle and not in the dugout, so she couldn’t hear,” St. Paul senior catcher Talyr Paxton added. “I think it was pretty special because she means a lot to us.”

“We were all hyping her up in the circle or whatever and she was like, ‘Yeah, great win,’” Vieth said. “And we were like, ‘You don’t know.’”

After recording the final out of their 10-2 victory, the Wildcats had no reason to keep the secret any longer.

“It was a very special moment,” Volk said. “They were starting jumping around and yelling and screaming. I was just like, ‘What? This is great. I love this excitement. If we’re going to do this after every game, let’s go.’ Then when I turned around the student-managers had a big ‘100′ and I was like, ‘Oh, alright, so now this is starting to piece things together.’”

Kickstarting the season with a momentous win is energizing the Wildcats for what they hope is a run to state through Hastings and into Omaha.

“To start the season off that way I think it gave our team great energy to move forward,” Vieth said.

“We started off really strong and we would just want to keep pushing to the end,” Paxton added.

And for Volk, reaching this point, with this group, is especially meaningful.

“It’s really going to be a hard year because I’ve had these girls for so long,” she said. “That kind of makes it extra special for me because I remember coaching these guys when they were 12 and under.”

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