The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? "I made the all-stars, with all boys, and that was a little different," Tholl recalled. "As we started to get a little older, the boys weren't as welcoming to a girl … until I got on the field. Until they realized, okay, this girl can play." Not only play, but also displace a male counterpart at the most impor- tant non-pitching position on the field. "The first couple of days at practice, they put me at second base, because they had a pretty good shortstop," she said. "Then they realized I was the better shortstop. They shifted me over, and I'm sure that bruised a few egos." Tholl found her way into fast-pitch softball at age 13, but couldn't find the competitive level she sought through Victor J. Andrew High School or the surrounding area. She began playing an early version of travel softball, per- forming in tournaments in Chicago and northwest Indiana. Her high school crew, the Thun- derbolts, did qualify for the Class AA state tournament in her freshman sea- son, and Hutchins happened to be at those games. Two years later, when Tholl's high school coach wanted to take the nucleus of the squad to a sum- mer camp, the University of Michigan cropped up as a possible venue. For Tholl, it wasn't a tough sell. "In Chicago, where I lived, you were either a Michigan fan or a Notre Dame fan," she recalled. "Even though I grew up in a large Catholic family, we were Michigan fans. I guess it was meant to be." Hutchins knew of her, but so did a number of other schools she visited in the recruiting process, including Penn State, Minnesota and Iowa. A visit to Ann Arbor set in motion a new life. She became the first in her family to attend college, and the early memories of that experience remain with her to this day. "Every day was Disney World for me," Tholl recalled. "I mean that. I didn't know what the next day would bring. I was a pretty grounded kid, but every day was like, 'Oh, what are we going to do today? How fun is this?' "I get to go someplace where there's a whole bunch of different people that I've never even come in contact with, that I'm learning about. I didn't even have the faintest idea of how great the University of Michigan academics were. Every day you learned, and it was like, 'Wow. I'm in a pretty special place.'" Tholl never felt overwhelmed or homesick, and it showed when she came out and earned first-team All- Big Ten honors as a freshman. "Every day I got to go to softball practice, and practice my passion," she said. "Seriously, I was like a puppy. What do you get to do today? What are we going to do tomorrow? You still see that in the freshmen. I always felt at peace, like this is where I was sup- posed to be." A defensive wizard who proved in- credibly tough to strike out as a lead- off hitter, Tholl to this day laughingly admits her lack of empathy for those who don't make contact. "I was always like [St. Louis Car- dinals shortstop] Ozzie Smith, more of a defensive player than offensive player," she said. "The one thing I did