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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Kailua's Kessell adds to repertoire

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kailua's Courtney Kessell worked with Chaminade coach Walter Kaaihili, who taught her a drop-ball, screwball, curveball and change-up.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

If Castle High's softball team is expecting the same old Courtney Kessell pitching for Kailua tomorrow when the unbeaten teams meet in a showdown for first place in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association's Eastern Division, the Knights are in for a surprise.

There will be a new, less predictable Kessell pitching for Kailua (5-0) in the 3:30 p.m. game at Castle (6-0).

Kessell has been pitching against Castle players, and sometimes with them in the summer, since she was 11 years old. She basically had one pitch, a wicked riser, and the Knights beat her last season.

After working with Chaminade coach Walter Kaaihili and his Na Wahine ASA team last summer, the sophomore right-hander now also throws a drop-ball, screwball, curveball and change-up.

She has increased the velocity on her riser, too, but says, "now, if it isn't working, I've got another pitch."

Kessell has a 4-0 record in OIA games with 42 strikeouts in 26 innings. She struck out 12 each against Kaimuki, which was unbeaten at the time, and Roosevelt.

She pitched two perfect games in preseason and a no-hitter in the OIA opener against Kalani. She has given up a total of seven hits and five walks in four games and her earned-run average is 0.54.

"Last year, the batters always knew what was coming, but they still had a hard time hitting her," says Kailua coach Bernard Victor. With only one pitch, Kessell went 8-3 and struck out 76 batters and shared first-team all-state honors with Player of the Year Leo Sing Chow of Kamehameha (now at UH-Hilo) and mighty mite Miki Asamura, who is pitching her fourth season for unbeaten Mililani.

"She holds them down, and the rest of the team is doing a good job to help her," Victor says.

Says Kessell: "Everything is a team thing. It's not just one — not just me. I just have been in the spotlight lately.

"When they hit it helps me," she adds. "If I make a little mistake it won't matter."

Victor has been head softball coach at Kailua for 15 years and on the staff for 26 years. He helped Howard Okita coach a string of outstanding pitchers when Kailua won six state championships in the 1980s and was head coach when the Surfriders won three straight titles from 1995-97.

The caliber of softball being played in Hawai'i now is superior, Victor says. "It's more competitive now," he says. "There are more hitters, and more teams have good pitchers, like Asamura of Mililani and (Kate) Robinson of Kam."

Kailua's nine state championship teams all featured dominant pitchers, but "none could throw as many different pitches as (Kessell) can," Victor says. "That's the difference. She could be the best, as far as being a finished pitcher.

"Not many girls work as hard as she does," Victor says. "She spends all her time working at her game. On Sunday she was out practicing."

Kessell explains, "I've been playing softball since I was 8 years old. It's my life."

Only one thing could keep her off the diamond. Kessell says her mother, a Honolulu radio personality known as "Lisa D," tells her "If my grade point is not 3.0 or over, no softball."

Not a problem. For the first quarter each of her two years in high school, Kessell has earned straight As.

EXTRA INNINGS: Courtney Kessell writes and eats left-handed, but pitches softball right-handed. . . . She grew up in Kailua and played for Bernard Victor's summer youth teams, but moved to Pearl City last year. "I wanted to play for Kailua High since I was little," she said. The Department of Education gave her a district exception to attend Kailua. . . . She wants to play softball at a California college, like seven-time national champion UCLA. . . . Before softball became "my life," Kessell says, she tried cheerleading, karate and soccer. . . Before she became an all-star pitcher for Kailua American Little League softball at age 11, she was a shortstop. "I was not always good," she said.