Kane County Chronicle Athlete of the Week: St. Charles North’s Julianna Kouba, sophomore, softball

Name: Julianna Kouba

School: St. Charles North, sophomore

Sport: Softball

What she did: Across five wins on the week for the North Stars, Kouba went 10 for 16 (.625 average) at the plate with two doubles, a home run and nine RBIs.

Kouba was voted the Kane County Chronicle Athlete of the Week in an online vote.

Here is her Q&A with sports reporter Joel Boenitz.

How do you feel you performed at the plate?

Kouba: I feel that my bat head has started to come alive again. After the first few at-bats in my season, I feel like I’ve found even more confidence in myself to have the outputs that I need for my team. Me and my dad always talk about just being confident, having fun. And I feel like that’s really showing because I just go up there with the mentality to just hit the ball.

Nine of your hits came in the final three games of the week. What did you do differently from the beginning?

Kouba: I was just thinking about more of the team, of what they needed in that exact moment, more than myself. I feel like that’s the mentality I always have, but it really came into action because I knew where I needed to place the ball in certain situations, and it really just helped me boost my ego and what I needed to do in that exact moment. And my teammates were supporting me the entire way.

Your other hit on the week was a home run. How did it feel to hit your first of the season?

Kouba: As I was running the bases, I was just so happy. And everybody was hearing me shouting for myself and it just really made me feel like everything is just set in. It made me realize that softball season actually started and we’re running on the road and we’re going so fast. And that I have everybody behind me cheering for me. It just really makes me feel what I need to feel for the game. It really makes me realize how much I love it.

You’re coming off a state championship from last season. How do you feel the team has done so far with that title?

Kouba: The pressure is definitely still there on the team, and sometimes it’s a little much for us. But we have figured out ways to cope with that, and that definitely helps us when we’re playing. Having that experience will definitely set me up for these next three years, but we’re hitting our valleys and our mountains. It really will push us to be our best once the tournament comes around.

Your walk-up song is “Low” by Flo Rida. How did that come to be?

Kouba: I always ask my grandparents for a song to make sure they’ll know it too if they come to a game. And my grandma gave me like the idea of a lot of the older songs and I was like, ‘Oh, I feel like they’ll know the song.’

Any superstitions?

Kouba: Whenever I go into a dugout, the first thing I do is always check the water. I only like water before games, so I’ve got to test if it’s good. And then every time before I go up to bat, I always see my mom in the stands right behind home plate and we’ll always give each other a little smile back and forth. Whenever we do that, somehow I’ve always hit the ball.