Softball: Rock Falls’ Thatcher to play next year at Louisville

A Division I softball career has been in Katie Thatcher’s plans for a long time, and she has refused to let anything stop her.

The Rock Falls senior fought back from injury and two knee surgeries to make her dream come true, as she will sign a National Letter of Intent to play softball at the University of Louisville on Wednesday afternoon. Anyone interested can attend the signing at the high school.

Thatcher will play outfield for the Cardinals, and first came to their attention through her hitting coach in Milan, Trey Hannam.

“My hitting coach got ahold of his friend, who’s the hitting coach at Louisville, who got in touch with me through Twitter. He said they had a camp the following week and that I should come,” Thatcher said. “I went, and at camp they told me they’d come watch me play the next weekend in Kansas City. After that tournament, they asked me to come back for a visit to campus. So I went back to Louisville and they made me the scholarship offer.

“I took about two weeks to decide, then called the head coach and said, ‘I just wanted to let you know that I accept your offer, and I’m excited to come out and play for you guys.’”

It was the culmination of a comeback story for the ages by Thatcher. She tore the lateral and medial meniscus in her right knee in 2020, and ended up needing two surgeries to repair the damage. Her first was in October 2020, and the second was in March 2021.

The second surgery to repair the knee was the more devastating of the two for Thatcher. She had been rehabbing following the first surgery, and was preparing to play her sophomore season for the Rockets. But the knee just didn’t feel right, and a second surgery was required to clean things up in the joint; that forced her to miss the 2021 season.

“I know it broke her heart the second time she had surgery, because she was prepared to come play with us,” Rock Falls coach Steve Giddings said. “But she fought through it and got back and earned that scholarship.

“The first time I talked to Katie a few years ago, I asked what she wanted to do, and she had it in her mind early that wanted to play Division I softball. That’s what she wanted from her freshman year on, and she worked her butt off for it and got it done.”

Thatcher said the second visit to Louisville sealed the deal for her. She enjoyed her discussions with head coach Holly Aprile and her staff, and loved the cozy feel of the campus during her tour.

“The coaches were one of the first things that made me fall in love with the school; it felt more like a friendship than a coach-player relationship, and I felt the program was more elite and developed,” Thatcher said. “And the campus was beautiful and did not have a big-city feel at all. I was looking for an enclosed campus that wasn’t all spread out, and that’s what they have at Louisville. There are trees around the campus, it feels like it’s all there together, and all the sporting and athletic buildings are on the same street, so it’s very accessible.”

The Cardinals’ track record for success was also a factor. A perennial 30-win team before the COVID-19 pandemic, Louisville has still been around .500 the past few seasons, and has turned out a few professional players and seen former head coaches go on to have success at other big-time programs.

The offer was a welcome one, as Thatcher had seen several teammates on her Heartland Havoc ‘05 travel team commit or get offers from schools, and was wondering when she would get her turn. But now that she’s made the decision, she feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

“I was nervous because I wasn’t committed yet, and I felt like something needed to happen,” Thatcher said. “Finally in the summer when it did, I thought ‘Phew!’ Now I know what’s going to happen next year, I know where I’ll be and what my future plan is, and that’s a huge relief.”

Thatcher, who plans to study exercise science at Louisville, said she can’t believe how far she’s come, after the depths of disappointment during her injury and subsequent comeback from it.

“It’s mind-blowing to think that a year ago, I wasn’t even able to be playing,” Thatcher said. “I knew I needed tp put in a lot of work to get back to where I was, and it was just more motivation to work harder to become the player that I was – and not even just be as good as before, but become even better.

“Even during the high school season last spring, I still wasn’t the best, but I could slowly see myself getting there, and it felt great to realize that I was doing fine, I was getting back on the right track, and I knew I was going to get there. This is proof of that.”

Thatcher had a stellar junior season last spring, hitting .412 with a .525 on-base percentage. Her .896 slugging percentage was fourth-best in the area, and her 1.422 on base plus slugging was sixth. She had 40 hits, 39 runs and 31 RBIs, with 16 doubles (tied for second-most in area), two triples and nine home runs (tied for area lead).

She also went 11-5 as a pitcher with a 2.46 ERA, leading the area in innings pitched (134) and strikeouts (175), but she says her future isn’t in the circle, but rather at the plate and in the outfield at Louisville.

Giddings said the Cardinals are getting a talented player with lots of intangibles.

“They’re getting a good athlete, a good student, and a good hard-working player,” he said. “From last season, through the summer and fall, she worked her butt off, and she’s very deserving of this.”