PSU Magazine Spring 2006

andToday 0 , Wednesday afternoon enly this spring, Michelle Hext convened her usual LitLle League softball practice on a windy, green field in Hillsboro. She may appear peLi.Le and quite feminine, but HexL is a sLern Laskmas– ter. The all-girl squad-Lhis panicular team is now, one by one, entering Lhe teen years-came ready for Hext's tough workout of nmni.ng, balling, pitching, and catching drills. Parents milled al the sidelines. One came over and huddled wiLh Hext; iL was a team member's binhday, and someone had brought a big sheeL cake in the back of her car. "It's just ti.mes like thaL where T say, okay, pitch for half an hour and Lhen let's havP some cake," says HexL. "As I've gotten older, I've gotten beuer al coaching, including knowing when to goof off." l,,nty yens aftec Macgaret Dobson, alumna and reLi.red PSU administrator, won a varsity letter at Vanpon, Title IX became law, requiring schools to give girls equal access Lo sports. By many accounts it took another 20 years-a whole generation-of law– suiLs and additional legislation to put Title IX rules i.mo effect. Which explains why the spons community supponing girls and women has flour– ished mosL in the pasL 10 years. There is no beLter example of the growing Lrend of women, girls, sports, and community building Lhan Hext. In comrast to the barrier-busting Dobson, HexL had Lhe opportunity to do every spon her broLher did , right in Lhe public school system. However, although Hext could aspire to professional women's spons, which are now booming in populariLy like never before, she'd raLher invest her time and expertise training female athletes of the future. In that sense she definitely takes a page out of Dobson's book. Hext, 22, is one of the best softball pitchers in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. Last year Hext, a right-han– der, racked up a career-high 11 strike– outs in one game, which ended in a P U shuLout against University of San Diego. Shes been named to the All-Conference Second Team for two years in a row. H" biggest challenge' Keeping bee schedule straight. "l have every second of my planner filled out for the next three months," she says. Every day Hext goes to class, then to softball practice with the Vikings. She then heads Lo Hillsboro for her part-Lime coaching job. Late in the evening, past dinnertime, she goes home to her own schoolwork. She'll be graduating in June with a dual degree in English, and arts and letters. A native of Beaverton, Hext started T-ball in grade school and began play– ing competiLively at age 11. That was the year Hexts dad, Steve, rearranged much of the family's routine around Michelle and her baseball-playing brother, John. Hext has been playing softball 17 years now, and the sport is more than just a game; it has a social fabric all its own. Which Hext found out for herself a few years ago, when her high school softball mentor asked her to coach a group of girls. The job has kindled Michelle Hext, a pitcher for PSU's 2006 winning softball team, is supporting the next generation of women athletes. a fire inside Hext she didn 't realize was possible. "l have a group thats just going from 12 Lo 13 years old, and I've had them for a few years-now they're coming in to practice with makeup and hairdos," she says. "They're chang– ing, their attitudes are changing, and their attitude toward me is changing. "Definitely I Lhink they're facing a lot more than I did ," she says. The kids are specializing at an earlier age, she says, in part because they have fewer electives in school. They're also more competitive-all of which sometimes makes the kids' lives more stressful. Nevertheless, Hext says Lhe commu– nity is investing more Lime and energy in its daughters , and the fmure payoff will be stronger, more fulfilled women. "Just interacting with them and their parents," she says, "sometimes l jusL waLch them and iL reminds me of what my dad did for me. " D (Lisa Loving, a Po11land Jreelance write,; wrote the article "From Descartes Lo Diapers" in the winter 2006 PSU Magazine.) SPRING 2006 PSU MAGAZINE 21