DOING HER HOMEWORK H.-W. PITCHER SHOWS HER SMARTS ON AND OFF FIELD.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer Christine McLane has been Shelly Madick's catcher at Harvard-Westlake High of Studio City the past couple of seasons and if there's one thing she's confident in saying about her battery mate, it's that no hitter will ever outsmart out·smart tr.v. out·smart·ed, out·smart·ing, out·smarts To gain the advantage over by cunning; outwit. outsmart Verb Informal same as outwit Verb 1. her. ``Yeah, she's one of the smartest people I know,'' McLane said. ``She always does her homework before the game.'' It's confusing though, when you try to decide whether McLane means homework, as in scouting the opposition, or homework in the academic sense. Madick, with a 3.9 grade-point average and a 1420 SAT score, will attend Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. next season and play for the Crimson. And what makes Madick's accomplishments impressive is the fact that she played softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' year-round in high school and travel ball, a time commitment that easily surpasses a part-time job. ``I think I just don't need that much sleep,'' Madick joked. ``Junior year was really intense. But I applied early this year, so my senior year was a lot less stressful.'' Madick will conclude her high school career Monday in the 18th annual Daily News senior All-Star softball game at the Glendale Sports Complex at 3 p.m. Over the past four seasons, Madick has been among the area's strikeout and ERA leaders. This season, she even broke through as a top hitter, leading Harvard-Westlake with a .446 batting average batting average n. Baseball A measure of a batter's performance obtained by dividing the total of base hits by the number of times at bat, not including walks. Noun 1. , 15 RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in and eight doubles. In the circle, she had a 0.44 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 126 2/3 innings. In case you aren't as good at math as Madick is, that's an average of more than one strikeout per inning. The only thing not impressive about Madick is her 9-8 record. But that's easily explained because Harvard-Westlake was shut out in eight of its 10 losses this seasons. In the other two losses, the Wolverines scored a total of two runs. Madick's close friend, Kat Walsh of Granada Hills High, said that lack of run support might have kept people from recognizing Madick's talents in high school. ``She's such a good pitcher,'' Walsh said. ``And I'm not sure people knew that because they always lost these one-run games where they never scored for her.'' Madick admits that got to be frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: at times, but as you can tell from her college choice, her life isn't defined by softball accomplishments. ``I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be nice to get more awards and see your name in the paper all the time, but that's not why I play softball,'' she said. ``I play because it's fun. I love the coaches and the girls on the team. '' Madick will be one of eight students from Harvard-Westlake to attend Harvard next year. Another 15 will attend Stanford and 50 seniors will attend an Ivy League Ivy League Group of eight universities in the northeastern U.S., high in academic and social prestige, that are members of an athletic conference for intercollegiate gridiron football dating to the 1870s. school. It's hard to feel too special when so many of your classmates Classmates can refer to either:
``She's a leader,'' he said. ``Not just in terms of statistics, but in the way she encourages everybody on the team. ... I'm going to miss her next year.'' Ramona Shelburne, (818) 713-3617 ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Harvard-Westlake's Shelly Madick will play in the Daily News all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games before starting her studies at Harvard. David Sprague/Staff Photographer |
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