ROGERS CITY — Jason Weiland remembers it to a tee.
When his daughter Gretchen was on a travel softball team, she was playing second base and had no experience as a pitcher. During her 10-under travel season, one of her teammates — a pitcher — quit the team, leaving Coach Weiland with no pitchers at his disposal.
He looked to his daughter and said, “You’re all we’ve got. Let’s go.”
Up stepped Gretchen, who not only had an opportunity to try something she’d never done before, but she also had a chance to impress her dad in the process.
From there, a new pitcher was born.
Back then, there was one skeptic whom Coach Weiland didn’t name, but remembers the person’s exact words about his daughter’s potential as a pitcher, words said right to Gretchen.
“One person said to her, ‘Well, you don’t have the size to be a pitcher,’” Jason recalled. “That was the spark that lit the fire for where she’s at now.”
Coach Weiland took those words personally, and apparently, so did his daughter, who’s evolved into a superstar pitcher for the Hillman Tigers and one of the best pitchers in the state of Michigan.
Gretchen delivered another one of her patented clutch, big-game pitching masterpieces by striking out 13 and allowing one run in spearheading the Tigers to a third straight MHSAA Division 4 regional championship with a 7-1 victory over Onaway in Rogers City on Saturday, June 6.
Too small to be a pitcher? Yeah, right.
Although Weiland’s development into a pitching powerhouse has been fascinating to follow, it hasn’t come without some rough patches along the way, something Gretchen knows about firsthand.
But who was there for her when things got difficult? Dad, of course.
“There were a lot of hours where my dad would sit on the bucket and would just catch me over and over again, and if something wasn’t working, I would pitch over and over and over until it was,” Gretchen said.
To say all those reps have paid dividends for Gretchen would be an understatement, as she’s developed into one of Northern Michigan’s most decorated players and broken some significant records along the way, including becoming Hillman’s all-time leader in career strikeouts and shutouts.
When did it all start clicking for Gretchen?
“I would say my freshman year when I was 14 years old — I really had to prove myself as a freshman,” Gretchen said. “There was a big (pitching) staff of girls, so I had to prove myself, so me being tenacious and pushing myself forward really showed me that you’ve got to work hard if you want to get where you need to go.”
The softball relationship between Gretchen and her father has been both fun and frosty at times, but she understands dad is simply trying to put her in the best possible position to succeed.
“We’ve had some moments where I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, dad, you’re not my coach next year,’ and then you turn around and he is my coach,” Weiland said. “At the end of the day I know he’s there for me, and I’m there for him. On the field, he’s coach. At home, he’s dad, but he’s always there to not only make me better, but also the whole team better.”
As Gretchen wraps up an epic Hillman career, the next chapter of her softball journey takes place at Alma College soon. She’ll head into Alma with some impressive academic credentials after earning an associate degree at Alpena Community College and graduating as her school’s valedictorian.
Whatever happens down the road, there’s one proud father who’s enjoyed the journey with his daughter.
A father who knows the sort of mark his daughter has made on the town of Hillman.
“I don’t know if you saw it earlier, but there was a kid that was two years old standing next to a trophy, and that kid wants to be like (Gretchen), so that’s pretty awesome,” Jason said.
Hillman meets Norway in a 4:30 p.m. state quarterfinal at Cedarville on Tuesday, June 9.
Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at jgreenleaf@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @sportsCDT
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Slighted early in career, Weiland evolves into Hillman softball great
Reporting by Jared Greenleaf, Cheboygan Daily Tribune / Cheboygan Daily Tribune
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By Jared Greenleaf, Cheboygan Daily Tribune | USA TODAY Network
