By Ryan Pritt

The Charleston Gazette-Mail

 

To hear Kennedy Dean tell it, she was far from a great softball player in her formative years.

 

“I was terrible,” Dean said matter-of-factly. “I didn’t have a good glove, I couldn’t hit – through years of practicing and grinding out offseasons, I’ve gotten a bit better I would say.”

 

To say the least. 

 

No matter how her softball journey started, Dean ended the high school portion of it in fine style, hitting .522 with 14 doubles, seven home runs, 51 RBIs and 39 runs in her senior season in leading Winfield to the Class AA title game.

 

For her contributions, Dean was named the West Virginia Hitter of the Year as voted on by the West Virginia Sports Writer’s Association edging out Lincoln County’s Josie Bird and Cabell Midland’s Quinn Ballengee for the inaugural award.

 

Whatever Dean worked through in her early days in the sport, one could hardly tell by the time she arrived at Winfield High School. A key contributor since bursting onto the scene as a freshman, Dean amassed 24 homers and 109 RBIs over her career (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), earning first-team, All-State honors each year.

 

But her game went to yet another level this season with her batting average ballooning .115 points (from .407 to .522). Yet, her explanation for the jump doesn’t involve mechanical adjustments or extra practice – in fact, quite the opposite. 

 

“Actually, I played basketball all winter long and I think that’s the biggest thing that helped me,” Dean said. “Taking a step back and changing the sport I was playing really helped. My junior year I spent all winter hitting and focusing on softball for a really long time and I felt like I had kind of plateaued. This year, I decided to play basketball again and I came out fresh this season. I was excited to get back to softball because I hadn’t played in a while. It helped me being a multi-sport athlete again.” 

 

Whatever the reason, everything seemingly came together for Dean from the get-go. Although she possesses plenty of pop, Dean’s willingness and ability to go the other way and sacrifice gaudy home run totals for gap-to-gap contact continued to set her apart. 

 

“She watches a lot of softball, she’s a student of the game,” Winfield coach Steve Hensley said. “She’s got that extra knowledge that probably, not too many pitchers are coming inside on her and if they do, it’s a mistake. She’s very right-field aware.”

 

“My dad and I have always talked about the need to be a contact hitter and produce for my team and I really tried to focus on that this year,” Dean added. “I’ve always been a pretty good contact hitter and sometimes I get lucky and hit one out.” 

 

That selflessness at the plate is hardly an aberration and as much as her production, that willingness to do whatever is needed has made Dean a special player according to Hensley. Referring to herself as a “Swiss Army softball player,” Dean, primarily a catcher and shortstop, played every position except pitcher during her three-year stint with the Generals. Those traits also made the Youngstown-State signee a natural leader for a team that reached the state tournament for the first time since 2003. 

 

“You don’t see too many come around with her skillset for one but her maturity and her coachability – she’ll do anything you ask her to do and she’s so unselfish,” Hensley said. “That carries a lot of weight in the eyes of her teammates. Being a good player helps but when you’re willing to catch or play outfield or play shortstop or do whatever it takes for your team to win, it carries a lot of weight in terms of leadership and accountability. She’s going to be very, very hard to replace.”

 

And when it comes to her preferred lasting legacy on Winfield softball, it’s those things – not RBIs or batting averages – that come up first.

 

“I just want it to be that all the girls respected me as a leader – I put them first and I wanted them to succeed,” Dean said. “I wanted everybody to feel like they could do everything I could do. If I struck out or popped out, everybody behind me had my back and that’s what took us as far as we went. 

 

“No matter what happened, I hope they looked at me as a good teammate and a respected leader. It doesn’t matter about numbers – hopefully I just made them feel welcomed and encouraged.”

As far as she’s come since those humble softball beginnings and even with the awards and honors achieved since, Dean continues to remember that kid that was lost in the field and in the box. And those lows continue to drive her to new heights.

 

“It was hard work, dedication and a lot of tears – I felt like I wasn’t as good as the other girls and I wasn’t,” Dean said. “My dad told me, ‘You can either let this beat you or you can go work and get better.’ I took that option. I never consider myself to be the best player on the field, that’s the thing that keeps me grinding and pushing. I’m not the best softball player, I just want to be.”

 

Editor's Note: Photo of Dean courtesy of The Gazette-Mail.