Making Her Mark With a Flourish : Wood Finishes Up Softball Career Dotted With Records

Last Thanksgiving, Dawn Wood was working her part-time job as a hostess at Marie Callender’s and feeling anything but thankful.

Now Marie Callender’s is a cheery kind of place, but on this ho-hum day, Wood was restless.

“I was stressing,” Wood said. “I don’t really know why, but it was the worst.”

As Wood’s shift was ending, a customer blurted, “I know you. You’re Dawn Wood. You were in Sports Illustrated’s ‘Faces in the Crowd’ last year.”

Startled, she nodded and agreed that she was indeed that Dawn Wood.

“Here, in the middle of this gross day,” she said, “this man I had never seen recognized me. It was weird at the time, but then I realized how neat (the recognition) was.”

Wood, two-time Metro Conference and 1988 section player of the year for Castle Park, set section pitching marks for season shutouts (17, 1988), career shutouts (40, 1986-89), victories in a season (20, 1988), consecutive perfect games (two, 1988) and career strikeouts (741, 1986-89).

The end of her high school career didn’t fit the pattern. She lost four consecutive times--a 3-0 victory by Mt. Miguel Saturday in the 3-A playoffs ended the season for Castle Park, last year’s section 2-A runner-up--and she wound up tied with Santana’s Cheryl Forehand and Fallbrook’s Tori Spiekerman for career victories with 58.

“It wasn’t a letdown,” Wood said. “If we had the talent, it would have been different, but we weren’t expected to do anything.” Castle Park had six errors in the game against Mt. Miguel.

Regardless, she finished with her name plastered all over the section record book.

“I wasn’t aware of all the records until everyone pointed them out,” Wood said. “I was nonchalant about it. I was taking it game by game, and they just started adding up.”

Wood holds the career strikeout record most dear.

“The strikeout one, I was jazzed,” she said. “That’s your accomplishment.”

Now headed for Arizona State, Wood welcomes the chance to compete with players of similar desire, something she didn’t always find on the high school level.

“I’m excited to have a good team behind me,” she said. “They’ll have as much love of the game as I do. They’re playing because they want to be.”

When freshman Wood burst onto the high school softball scene, her entrance was as memorable as a child’s first visit to Disneyland. It was hard to describe.

“No one in this area had ever seen the kind of stuff she threw,” said Castle Park Coach Tim Tyler. “She just kind of blew everyone away.”

But when her second season came around, batters weren’t dumbstruck.

“As a sophomore, people knew what to expect,” Tyler said. “It was the sophomore jinx.”

Wood described it more as a bad dream.

“That was really a bad year for me,” she said. “If I was more intense and wouldn’t have slacked off, I would have done better. That summer I concentrated on improving. It opened my eyes to that I had to work hard.”

A seasoned and smarter Wood emerged the next year.

“As a junior she learned to pitch smart,” Tyler said. “She learned how to pitch to batters. We worked on her thinking. She grew a lot and realized it was fun.”

Tyler said much of Wood’s success is in her ability to keep batters off balance.

“The biggest thing about Dawnie is she’s smart,” he said. “She remembers batters. Every pitch she throws is for a reason.”

Wood insists her talent isn’t natural and is careful not to take it for granted.

“I’m glad I’m not a natural,” she said. “When (players are) natural, they get lazy. It comes so easy to them, then they don’t work so hard.”

Never satisfied with second best, Wood has learned that to excel takes effort. She has always worked harder, practiced longer--she once called her own team practice--and remained more humble than many of her contemporaries.

“You have to be willing to give your all,” she said. “If you don’t, past accomplishments don’t mean a thing. There are people working harder than you and they will pass you up.”

Last April, Wood was the subject of local and national media attention for tying a national high school record for pitching consecutive perfect games. Madison’s Jennifer Booker recently matched it.

The aftermath of the attention was inevitable--pressure with a capital P. Her lackluster sophomore year led to a low-pressure junior year, but such was not the case in 1989.

“Because I had a good junior year, I knew this year could go either way,” she said. “It was more negative pressure, but I learned to deal with it. I looked at it like, ‘If I break a record, fine, but if I don’t, that’s OK, too.’ ”

From the day she first stepped onto a softball field, all her efforts were geared toward a attaining a college scholarship.

“My coach told me that if I practiced really hard and got good, I could get someone to pay for my schooling,” Wood said.

Said Tyler: “I’ll miss Dawnie. From day one she wanted a college scholarship, and she has one. I hope she’s meant (to this program) that if you set goals, you can attain them.”

Wood often reverts to the importance of a scholarship and her education. She hopes to someday teach and coach--what else?--high school softball.

“I knew one day I’d get a scholarship,” she said. “With the right attitude, the desire to play and keeping your grades up, it’s not impossible.”

Wood showed interest in Cal State Northridge, University of the Pacific and ASU, but one visit to Tempe had her destined for the desert.

“I went to Northridge after Arizona,” said Wood, “but I fell in love with ASU.”

Wood said the recruiting process was her first taste the world’s harsh realities. Based on the friendship that Wood and recruiter Tami Brown formed, Wood came to expect more than ASU offered. She was surprised when she was told her pitching wasn’t needed.

“People should realize recruiting is a business,” she said. “They called and told me they had enough pitchers. My feelings were hurt.”

Wood accepted a partial scholarship that might become a full ride. She may be venturing into unfamiliar territory, but her biggest fear for the future isn’t the unknown.

“I’m wondering if I can handle the school part,” she confides. “I’m afraid of not doing as good as I’m used to doing. I have some self-doubts, but I think that’s normal.”

She certainly has the backing of her parents, who have managed to support without smothering their youngest of three daughters.

“Both of them are real involved with me,” Wood said. “I like to bounce ideas off them.”

Alan Wood works two months a year in Riverside during, of all times, softball season. But he still commutes to San Diego for games.

“We got so mad at him the other day,” said Alma Wood, Dawn’s mother. “He fell asleep driving home. He woke up right before he almost hit a truck.”

Times shared on the softball field with her father have unified them.

“Dad is always there to catch me,” Wood said. “Some of my most special times with my dad have been through doing stuff like that.”