SMALL STAGE, BIG STAR DESERT CHRISTIAN'S SMITH ATTRACTS COLLEGE ATTENTION.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 Perhaps it would have been better had Makenzie Smith not batted .681 with nine doubles, five triples and 35 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 for Desert Christian High this spring. With such eye-popping statistics, the natural reaction is to think the numbers are inflated or to discount her altogether because of the size of her school and its opponents. But when that pattern continues into the summer travel-ball season, against some of the top teams in the nation, you have to start taking the chiseled chis·eled or chis·elled adj. Made or shaped with or as if with a chisel: a finely chiseled nose. Adj. 1. center fielder from the tiny Southern Section Div. VI private school seriously. College coaches are. After batting a team-leading .483 with two home runs at the Colorado Fireworks fireworks: see pyrotechnics. fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to showcase tournament three weeks ago, Smith said she has received letters, calls and visits from 10 Division I programs, including Boston College Boston College, main campus at Chestnut Hill, Mass.; coeducational; Jesuit; est. and opened 1863. Actually a university, the school's Chestnut Hill campus comprises colleges of arts and sciences and business administration, the graduate school, and schools of nursing , New Mexico New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). , Utah, South Carolina South Carolina, state of the SE United States. It is bordered by North Carolina (N), the Atlantic Ocean (SE), and Georgia (SW). Facts and Figures Area, 31,055 sq mi (80,432 sq km). Pop. (2000) 4,012,012, a 15. and Tennessee. ``People hassle me a lot about going to Desert Christian,'' Smith said. ``Like when we play an easy team, the parents will say, `Is this what high school is like for you?' I used to worry that going there would keep me from getting a college scholarship, but I think travel ball kind of speaks for itself.'' Her travel coach, Don Harris of the Southern California Stealth, is more effusive ef·fu·sive adj. 1. Unrestrained or excessive in emotional expression; gushy: an effusive manner. 2. Profuse; overflowing: effusive praise. in his praise. ``It's a legitimate .700,'' Harris said of her high school batting average. ``The thing with Desert Christian is that it works against her when she gets to travel ball because it takes her about a month to adjust to the pitching. But this year, she just lit it up in Colorado. All the coaches were talking about her. ``She's the type of kid who impresses you with her physicality, her presence. Coaches see her standing in center field and they want her. She looks like an athlete, she acts like an athlete and she's just so tough. She's a real warrior.'' Despite her gaudy numbers, Smith's competitiveness goes relatively unnoticed at the high school level. Desert Christian's only real competition in the Desert Mountain League is Boron boron (bōr`ŏn) [New Gr. from borax], chemical element; symbol B; at. no. 5; at. wt. 10.81; m.p. about 2,300°C;; sublimation point about 2,550°C;; sp. gr. 2.3 at 25°C;; valence +3. , which has won 120 consecutive league games. The other teams in the league - Lucerne Lucerne (l  sûrn`), Ger. Luzern (ltsĕrn`), canton (1993 pop. Valley, Silver Valley and Mammoth - offer little competition,
and scores often get out of hand.
``A couple of times, it was like 20 to nothing and we've got a two-hour bus ride back home so I had to leave the base early and get called out. That's hard because you're a competitor and you don't want to have to play like that,'' Smith said. ``But we wanted to be good sports and not run up the score. There were some teams in our league where half the girls quit and they'd bring in players who never played softball before.'' Smith doesn't have to worry about toning down her competitiveness again until the next high school season. And Harris is excited about seeing how she performs the rest of the summer. ``She's probably the most hard-nosed kid I've ever coached,'' said Harris, who has coached the Stealth to five top-10 finishes and one national championship in his 11 years there. ``She's going to do very well for herself at this level and in college.'' Ramona Shelburne, (818) 713-3617 ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Colleges are taking notice of Desert Christian standout Makenzie Smith, who has extended her prep success to travel ball. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer |
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