El Toro Teammates Bury Hatchet, Then Bruise Opponents

Dana Gulick and Jennifer Hamer are so much alike on the field, they spent the first three years of their high school softball careers trying to outdo each other in a sibling-like rivalry. Both coveted the starting center field spot at El Toro, but only one could have it.

Then one day last fall, after both had committed to rival colleges, they realized they had a lot in common. They decided to settle their differences and play wherever they could to help their team.

Now they eat lunch together every day, and each has accepted her role without a whimper. Gulick, the team captain who is headed to Arkansas, bats in the leadoff spot and plays left field. Hamer, who will be at Louisiana State next season, bats second and plays in center.

The two, who both bat left-handed, have helped El Toro stay in the Sea View League race behind front-running Woodbridge.

Gulick is batting better than .400, with an on-base average well over .500. Hamer is batting around .325 and has an on-base average approaching .600. If they combine to reach base four or more times per game, according to the league’s coaches, El Toro (16-10, 5-1) is virtually untouchable.

“They had a friendly rivalry, early on. They competed against each other,” said Charger Coach Jim Daugherty, referring to their relationship soon after the girls made the varsity as freshmen in 1993.

The two admit to a slightly deeper rift.

Gulick, who is introspective and quiet, points to a series of “little tiffs” that built up over the seasons. Hamer, who is more out-going, blames a lack of maturity on both their parts in handling the status and pressure associated with making the varsity at such a young age. Both say their differences were minor, but still annoying. Each says she’s glad they set aside the personal competition.

“The older we get, the more mature we are,” Hamer said. “We realized that it was not worth it for us not to get along. We needed to pull together for the good of the team.”

The girls were known as excellent competitors long before they got to El Toro, and their backgrounds are strikingly similar. They competed against each other in Bobby Sox leagues, attended the same middle school and joined the same traveling softball team in eighth grade. Once there, they became left-handed batters to take advantage of their speed.

About the only difference in their game is their hitting styles. Gulick is a slap hitter, having never learned to drive the ball from the left side. Hamer has become more of a line-drive hitter.

Each is an excellent fielder. Hamer earned the inside track on the center field position as a freshman. Gulick wound up in the infield. Later in their high school careers, Hamer was moved to right field and Gulick to center.

This spring, Daugherty told the girls Hamer would return to center field and Gulick would play in left. In addition, Hamer’s role at the plate would be to concentrate on moving Gulick along the base paths.

Gulick took a long, hard look at her coach’s decision.

“At first, that kind of bothered me,” she said. “But then, I didn’t really care. I had to realize that I am playing for the team, not for myself, so I figured that if that is where he wants to put me, that’s just fine.”

Daugherty has been pleased with the way things have worked out.

“They never complained about it,” Daugherty said of his move. “They have worked well together and they complement each other.”

A major factor that helped make the girls closer were their decisions to play at rival Southeastern Conference colleges. That finally gave them something that they could share with each other.

“We realized that we both have something exciting,” Hamer said. “We went through the same recruiting and decision-making process, and we can talk to each other about it. A lot of kids at school don’t understand what we went through or are still going through. Every month that goes by we get closer to going away. We can help each other with that.”

Arkansas and LSU are starting softball programs next season, and Gulick and Hamer will be given shots to earn center-field jobs. This time their rivalry, if there is one, is expected to develop along more conventional lines.

They’ll share one more thing too.

“No matter how bad or good we do,” Gulick said. “We’ll be in the record books as some of the first players to ever play softball at both colleges. That’s important.”