SEATTLE — Jenn Salling didn’t make a single friend. That’s the way she wanted it.
In the semester she spent at North Seattle Community College during the 2008-09 school year, Salling kept her head down and maintained the same focus that she would go on to display on the softball field at the University of Washington.
“I knew no one,” she said of the six-month stint she did beginning in Sept. 2008 and culminating in an associate’s degree in March 2009. “I was just going in there with the attitude that I was going to get my 25 credits. I didn’t care to meet new people. My only focus was on school.
“At times, it was like — whoa — it was kind of overwhelming. But at the end of the day, I knew what I was doing it for.”
The Huskies’ junior shortstop with the intense eyes wouldn’t have had a chance to be a part of last spring’s historic run to an NCAA title had it not been for her short stint at North Seattle CC. Coming off an incredible freshman year at the University of Oregon that saw her break school records in batting average (.481), RBI (73) and slugging percentage (.873), Salling would have had to sit out the 2009 season under NCAA transfer rules.
But by earning an associate’s degree, Salling became eligible for the spring quarter at UW and joined the Huskies on April 3, 2009. Since then, she’s been living a softball fairytale.
“It’s a pretty cool story,” she said from the UW softball complex on Tuesday as the Huskies prepared for this week’s NCAA super-regional series against Oklahoma. “I had to sit out six months, go to community college for a few months, then transfer here in April — and two months later, I’m a national champion.”
In her two seasons at UW, Salling has emerged as an offensive catalyst, a sure-handed fielder and one of the Pacific-10 Conference leaders in intensity. Charming and jovial off the field, Salling brings a focus to the softball diamond that is unmatched.
“A lot of people tell me that I need to smile more out there,” she said. “But that’s just the way I’ve always been. I’ve never really smiled when I’m playing defense, and I don’t know why. It’s not that I’m not having fun; it’s just kind of a game-face mentality.”
Salling’s intensity was on display last weekend, when she drilled a line drive off the chin of North Carolina pitcher Danielle Spaulding and stood on first base without so much as an apologic nod. (Spaulding, thankfully, was not seriously hurt and stayed in the game.)
The next day, in a rematch with North Carolina that would determine which team came out of the Seattle Regional, Salling all but ignored coach Heather Tarr in the third-base coach’s box and decided on her own to lay down a one-out bunt with no one on base in the bottom of the eighth inning. Salling dove head first into first base, then advanced to second on an error.
Two batters later, when coming around third base on Shawna Wright’s line drive toward the left-field corner, Salling ignored teammate Niki Williams’s raised arms at home plate and slid in for the game-winning run.
“In my mind, I was like: I’m sliding; I’m going to try to make this look pretty cool to end it,” Salling said with a grin Tuesday.
That’s typical Salling, who only knows one way to play the game.
“She knows how to bring it,” Tarr said. “She knows how to be focused. She’s in the game.”
Salling said her intensity comes from her parents, Todd and Marilyn. Todd Salling played men’s fastpitch in her native British Columbia and turned down a chance to try out for the Canadian national team. He continued to play the sport and began working with his daughter’s fundamentals when she was 7 years old.
By the age of 15, Jenn Salling was such an accomplished softball player that she was invited to play with the Canadian Junior Olympic team in Beijing. Salling decided to pass on the offer, only to get another chance when she joined future UW teammate Danielle Lawrie in the 2008 Olympics — what may be the final time softball is an Olympic sport.
“I was too young and really inexperienced,” Salling said of her decision not to go to the Junior Olympics. “At that time, I didn’t realize how important experiences were, and I said no. I don’t regret my decision, by no means, because I wasn’t ready to go. And thankfully, I got another chance. Everything happens for a reason.”
One decision that Salling might regret was her original college choice.
She made her only college visit to Oregon — Tarr said Salling wasn’t even on the Huskies’ radar coming out of high school — and signed with the Ducks shortly thereafter. Salling redshirted her first year in Eugene, then had a record-setting freshman season in the spring of 2007. She missed the 2008 season while playing in the Olympics, then prepared to return to Oregon the next fall.
But when the 2008-09 school year began, Salling realized that she needed to make a move.
“Something in my mind told me: I’m not happy here,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “… At the end of the day, it came down to me waking up every single day smiling and being happy, going to bed every night being happy. That’s why I came here (to Washington).”
She chose UW in part because the program was a national contender, but Salling would have had to sit out a year under NCAA transfer rules. She opted instead to move into an apartment near Northgate Mall, take five classes at North Seattle CC, and obtain her associate’s degree.
Salling became eligible two months into the 2009 season and went on to help lead the Huskies to their first-ever national title.
“I don’t know if it was just meant to be,” Tarr said, “but she came into the fold at the perfect time last year. It could have been a risky thing to have a person like her come to our team like ours: a pretty close-knit group.
“To come into a team like that, that’s doing big things, it could’ve been dicey. But she’s a player that understands the goal, and she would be the last person to come in and want to affect the team negatively. So she fit in right away.”
Now, Salling and the Huskies are back in the postseason and two wins away from going to the College World Series for her second time. Salling has been part of two Husky teams that have combined to go 99-18 overall and 13-2 in NCAA tournament games.
“It really was all worth it,” Salling said, “because I’m really happy here.”
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