FORTVILLE — It was the best combination.
Great softball and great friendships, the blend was unstoppable.
Two decades later, after winning what is currently Mt. Vernon High School’s only state softball championship, many of the players from that 2000 Marauders title team believe the latter was just as, or more, important than the former.
"For me, we weren’t just a team, we were all friends," said Jennifer (Owens) Meyer, the starting center fielder and one of two seniors on the team. "We had great chemistry on and off the field."
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Current Mt. Vernon head softball coach Veronica (Weaver) Kirby was a junior and the starting first baseman on the title team. The camaraderie she had as a player with teammates during her career is something she hopes to see each season with her current Marauders.
Undoubtedly, it worked well 20 years ago.
"Softball was like second to us being around each other," Kirby recalled. "Because we were all friends, you didn’t feel a lot of pressure. We were just out having fun. I want to incorporate that to my team, that family feel."
They were really good softball players, too.
The state championship team went 29-1 and won the last 27 games on the way to the Class 2A crown. The only loss was a 1-0 decision to Frankton, which won the Class A championship that season.
For the season, Mt. Vernon outscored opponents 177-13. In tournament play, MV’s advantage was 41-3.
Though the scores were often lopsided, the Marauders had their work cut out in the state semifinal game. Kirby’s two-out RBI-single in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Meyer (Owens) with the winning run in a 2-1 victory over Blackford.
Mt. Vernon beat Evansville Memorial 6-0 in the championship game. Leadoff hitter Sandy McLean scored two runs. Shortstop Stacy Jordan had two hits in the title game.
Shelli (Messer) Bell, who went on to play at Purdue, was a dominant pitcher for the champs. Like Kirby, she was a junior on the squad. In 2000, the soon-to-be Boilermaker finished the season with a 0.15 earned run average with 238 strikeouts.
She threw a two-hitter in the title game, striking out six. She fanned 15 in the win over Blackford.
"Veronica and I are still best friends to this day," Bell said of the relationship that grew on the softball field. "We were in each other’s wedding.
"I don’t remember too many details about the games, or who we beat, but I remember the feeling (of winning the state championship) and the things we did before the games. It made our team special and what I loved so much."
There were team breakfasts. Sometimes it was eating biscuits and gravy at teammate Kristin Turner’s house, or they would meet before school at Judy’s Place — which is now Lincoln Square Pancake House, in downtown Fortville.
Turner’s mother made "pajama style" pants for all the players with their names on them. They were black and gold and the team would wear them with jerseys at school on game days.
The road games included a music-blaring boombox that went from the bus to the playing field.
Bell said the country band, Dixie Chicks was pretty popular at the time.
For game days, they wore their hair the same, too. Kirby said some games it would be in braids, other games they might go with pony tails.
Turner, the team’s catcher, was often the leader of the team get-togethers. Kirby said if they were at Judy’s Place and someone wasn’t there, Turner might give them a call and offer to go pick them up so they would all be together.
"She would come get you if you weren’t there," Kirby said. "She made sure, everyone was there no matter what your role was on the team."
Turner said a lot of the qualities her and her teammates had were instilled by then-assistant coach Jack Heiden, who was instrumental in getting the girls to play together on travel teams during the summer, which wasn’t as common in the late 1990s and 2000 as it is today.
"He was a huge contributor to our success," Turner said of the coach and community leader that passed away in 2016. "Three or four years leading up to the state title we were playing travel ball together.
"Plus, we were all really good friends. We counted on each other and trusted each other on and off the field."
Bell backed up Turner’s thoughts on the late coach, "We were a product of Jack Heiden," she said. "He got us all playing together."
Turner — who was scheduled to coach the Mt. Vernon seventh-grade team this season before spring sports seasons were cancelled — and Meyer are both softball coaches for the Indiana Gators organization. Both have daughters playing for different age groups.
Turner said she still sees how important that trust and friendship is on teams.
"It’s pretty significant," she said. "Even today you see a lot of teams fold because the girls can’t get along. Trusting and getting along makes the game how it’s supposed to be."
That wasn’t a problem 20 years ago, at least not with the Mt. Vernon Marauders.
"I went on to play at Purdue, and I loved Purdue, but I grew up playing with these girls and in (2000) we all felt like it was our time and we knew it," Bell said.
And they did it for one another.
"I think the biggest thing —and obviously there was talent — but we weren’t just playing for ourselves, we were playing for each other," Meyer said. "I wanted to win, but I didn’t want to win for me or my parents, I was playing for my teammates."
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Opponent;Result;Score
Yorktown;W;21-0
Pendleton Heights;W;2-0
Frankton;L;0-1
Lapel;W;7-2
Hamilton SE;W;6-0
Whiteland;W;3-2
New Palestine;W;2-0
Shelbyville;W;1-0
Greenfield-Central;W;7-1
Greenfield-Central;W;11-1
Anderson Highland;W;2-0
Shenandoah;W;1-0
Rushville;W;10-0
Knightstown;W;13-0
Franklin;W;7-2
Franklin;W;10-1
Anderson;W;1-0
Alexandria;W;5-0
Plainfield;W;7-0
Roncalli;W;2-0
Westfield;W;3-0
Lawrence North;W;4-0
Delta;W;11-0
Sectional
New Palestine;W;8-0
Westfield;W;7-0
Bishop Chatard;W;2-1
Regional
Whiteland;W;4-1
Lebanon;W;12-0
State Semifinal
Blackford;W;2-1
State Championship
Evansville Memorial;W;6-0
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Team Roster
Danae Griffey
Amanda Hammett
Mandy Hurst
Stacy Jordan
Abby Legge
Jennifer McGill
Sandy McLean
Shelli Messer
Jennifer Owens
Kristen Raney
Jennifer Schauff
Kristin Turner
Veronica Weaver
Amy Whyde
Brie Willey
Head coach: Stacey Bricker
Assistant coaches: Jack Heiden, Mike McGill
Note: In 2019, the team was part of the inaugural class of the MVHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
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