Sports
 

In four years, Holis has brought UH softball sweet success

By Keenan Singleton
The Daily Cougar

Best Valentine's Day memory? That's easy: Feb. 14 2001, surrounded by 15 smiling, athletic women. And just when you think it can't get any better than that, it did.

The Houston Chronicle documented the whole thing for the world to see.

Although the girls and I spent a joyous evening together, it was anything but romantic. Mainly, because we were at a softball field in Pearland.

The girls weren't smiling because I was there -- they had just won a bigger prize, their first "home game" (a 6-1 win over Texas Southern on Feb. 13 at Baseball America) as the University's newest varsity sport -- fast-pitch softball.

The softball team and I are kindred spirits. Kind of.

We both factored into the University's plans in 1998, them for better, me for the worse. Our first graduation is coming in May; six members of the first class complete their eligibility at the conclusion of the season. Their first published story in the Chronicle was my first published story in the Chronicle.

We took separate paths soon after. That would be my last story in the Chronicle. The softball team still makes regular appearances.

But seriously, Kyla Holas has created an oasis of success where there was none. Try creating a program. Try fielding a team without a field (the Cougar Softball Complex didn't open until the end of the inaugural season in 2001). Try melding a group of 15 strangers into a family.

Holas and Co. have done it with a deadly home field advantage (19-11 last season) and a ravenous offense. Visiting teams usually leave the Cougar Softball Complex wounded and stunned.

The Cougars hit and bash the ball over the field (which Holas describes as "cozy"), bruising opposing pitchers' egos and ERAs. Junior Kristen Glowacz and senior Arelis Ferreris lead an offensive juggernaut that teams would rather "naut" see.

The pitching staff is full of women able to knock out the opposition's offense. The two seniors -- Jamie Falco and Jenny Johnson -- have differing styles; Falco is Greg Maddux-like, using pin-point control to baffle hitters, while Johnson uses the staff's best blend of power and control. Sophomore Crystal Briscoe is the marriage between the present and the future.

A future that should be bright.

And Holas has brought that future into focus. About the only things this team is weak in is defense and attendance.

I can't help with the defense, but you can add one more to the attendance rolls.

After all, I've got to top the first Valentine's Day of the millennium.

Singleton is a columnist for the Sports section. 
He can be reached via dcsports@mail.uh.edu.