FRANKFORT — The feeling of pressure no longer impacts the performance of Tri-County senior pitcher and infielder Grace Luck during games.
Luck admitted her struggles with mental health in the past and how she’d tighten up during close matchups that could lead to her own self destruction in the circle.
But, now, there’s calm. A clear-mindedness she carries with her inning to inning and at-bat to at-bat because of her assistant coach Andrea Lantz. Lantz has taken the lead as the Cavaliers’ strength and conditioning head and guides players through meditation and stretching rituals during practice and games.
“In the past few years I’ve had things going through my head,” Luck said. “With her breathing exercises, it’s really helped me out with clearing everything in my head and focusing on the pitcher.”
Lantz is a yoga instructor at Society Yoga in downtown Lafayette, but balances her career with the sport she loves. She is a former second baseman who played at Eastern High School and graduated in 1999. She described herself as a “highly successful drag bunter, base stealer with a sharp glove and high on base percentage.”
After her high school career was over, Lantz went through life before becoming curious about yoga, the series of mental, physical and emotional practices which were first documented roughly 3,000 years ago in ancient India.
Lantz’s own journey into yoga started in 2018 to remedy her own mental and physical struggles.
“I became a yoga instructor after struggling to manage stress in my own life,” Lantz said. “It was showing up as shortness of breath, anxiety and tension in my body. Once I started taking yoga classes, I noticed a significant change in how I felt mentally and physically. I wanted to understand why yoga was so effective.
What followed was Lantz taking a 300-hour course called Advanced Yoga Psychology and soon finding a desire to pass what she learned onto others.
“It gave me a strong desire to teach others how to use the breath and move the body in ways that create more calm, balance and connection in both mind and body,” Lantz said.
Lantz has passed those teachings during her second year coaching at Tri-County, a program that has carried sustained success over the past two seasons — but hasn’t captured the coveted IHSAA class 1A sectional title. The Cavaliers in both sectionals ran into elite pitchers in Avery Layton of Rossville (Virginia Tech) in 2024 and Sydney Rainford (East Carolina) from North Newton in 2025. Both Layton and Rainford went onto capture state titles in those respective years.
Tri-County has its core, led by Luck and senior pitcher Maddi Nevitt (Northern Illinois), which demolished defending 1A sectional champion Clinton Prairie on the road 13-0 in five innings on Friday. A credit to what the team is learning under Lantz, who watched highlights of their game while recovering from hip surgery.
“The stretching part of yoga, the mental part of it we have really embraced that over the last few years and has really channeled us to have the right thought process when we are out practicing,” Tri-County coach Michael Luck said. “When we are nice, loose and limber it helps out with injuries. If we don’t have a game we are usually lifting or doing yoga.”
Lantz teaches the four core principles of her yoga style: body posture, breathwork, self-awareness and intention. A player that can exert those principles in games can be an asset. The result is Tri-County standing at 10-2 with a month before the start of playoffs.
“Softball is a very mental game,” Lantz said. “So I’ve used yoga as a tool to help players strengthen their mindset while learning to listen to what their body needs.”
It’s those quiet moments when Lantz dims the lights inside the gymnasium that Grace Luck feels at peace.
“We get rid of everything we are thinking of or what happened during a school day and let that out before a game,” Luck said. “We have a clear head to go do what we are going to do.”
Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@jconline.com, on Twitter at EthanAHanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Tri-County coach Andrea Lantz blends yoga with softball
Reporting by Ethan Hanson, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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