As her coach puts it, senior shortstop Janelle Honaker has recently “mellowed out a bunch.”
Naperville North coach Jerry Kedziora remembers a story two-thirds into last season that illustrates the change.
Without naming names, a sophomore was goofing off a bit on the field. It was how she played and had no malicious intent behind it, Kedziora said, but reflected somewhat poorly on a team that finished 6-24.
Expecting to have his mild frustration confirmed, he glanced at Honaker. She gave him a look that said, essentially, to let the player continue to have fun.
“As a sophomore, she would’ve been like, ‘Are you going to yell at this girl, can we get going here?'” Kedziora said, laughing. “But as a junior, she realized it was OK. It was a moment I started to see growth.
“You need to let people do what they can to be successful.”
At the end of her sophomore year, Honaker noticed teammates — some her age, some younger — asking her for advice. Help with a swing, questions about practice times and responsibilities, curiosity about any minutiae.
That flipped a switch.
“At that point, if people are looking to you, you can’t be so hard on everything,” Honaker said. “I was as hard on other people as I was on myself back then, and if I put that type of pressure on other people, it wasn’t going to work. Once I released that, I think things got better.”
Honaker is the three-year varsity starter and two-year captain for Naperville North. She was special mention all-conference last season, hitting .330 with a .404 on-base percentage, 10 doubles, 19 runs and seven stolen bases. Her .946 fielding percentage ranked third in program history.
North is coming off its worst season since 2002, finishing ninth in the conference and losing in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.
The Huskies (0-2) return six starters, including senior second baseman Callie Ladone, senior outfielder Maya Tucker, junior catcher Sarah Smith and junior first baseman Brooke Reed.
The new group relies both on young pitching, especially freshman Camilia Chelich, but more so on the tone set by Honaker.
“I was a quiet freshman, really intense, took everything super seriously,” Honaker said. “To a point that’s not necessarily bad, but as I’ve gotten a bit older, I’ve become more comfortable with not just the team, but also myself.
“I think I’m a little more mellow now, but I can go back to being intense when we really need it.”
Since playing travel ball as a young girl, Honaker always thought she would play softball in college.
“I hadn’t thought about anything else,” she said. “That’s what I was going to do.”
Reality has set in, however. She could’ve played played at a smaller school, but has elected to focus mostly on academics and will attend Illinois with an open mind about both what to study and her future.
“This year I took a little step back and thought, ‘Is this what I want to be most focused on?'” Honaker said. “It’s been one of the best parts of my life, but I think I need to focus a little more on my academics.
“I still love the game so much, I want to do intramurals or club possibly, I don’t want to it out of my life, but I have other goals as well.”
Rich Mayor is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
