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Schools

20 Years Later: Lake Forest High School's Softball Season Still Carries The Magic

The coach and star player reflect on a ride of lifetime.

She was the former professional softball player who was looking for a team that wanted to be pushed.

She was the flame throwing right hander with a fast ball that could shatter windows before the seams hit the glass.

In 1991, they were the perfect match. So perfect, in fact, they, along with a dozen or so other players and coaches, came two games away from winning a softball state championship.

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Twenty years after that magical season, there are memories lost with the passage of time, never to be recovered. But there are plenty of moments that still breath.

The Coach

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In 1976, Sue Trefny was looking for something to do after graduating from the University of Illinois-Chicago. She had played softball there and knew she wanted to coach. But she still wanted to play, so she tried out for the Chicago Ravens, the new women’s professional fast pitch team.

More than 300 athlete athletes tried out. The speedy outfielder was only one of five to make the team. While other college graduates spent the summer looking for jobs, she got paid to play softball.

“I was real proud of that. We traveled the country,” said Trefny. “It was a lot of fun.”

The league folded after one season and Trefny had to get a day job, which she knew would be teaching and coaching. She first landed at North Shore Country Day School before arriving at Lake Forest High School. In 1989 she took over the softball program, which had long been irrelevant.

“It wasn’t real strong. More of a recreational activity,” said Trefny.

She set out to change that, channeling the competitive fire that made her a professional player into coaching. At a time when travel softball was not the cottage industry it is today, Trefny encouraged her athletes to play in recreational leagues in the summer and fall. She also borrowed a tactic used by football coaches -- morning practices. Before school, her players would practice fundamentals.

Then after school, they would come back and work on in-game strategy. Her demanding ways were innovative in girl’s scholastic athletics at the time and in 1990, the Scouts had a winning season. Trefny was raising the bar -- and twisting it -- for a program on the verge of a quantum leap.

“We didn’t have a seasoned team but I knew in another year we had a good chance to compete (in our conference),” said Tefny.

The Pitcher

Kellie Beckwith McMahon remembers her spring breaks as a child. Her family would do normal things like take vacations out west to places like Utah. Like all families, they had their quirky traditions.

Here’s one -- McMahon’s father, John, would call up colleges and ask if his softball pitching daughter could stop by and throw batting practice.

“I was 16, 17 years old. Can you believe that?” said Beckwith McMahon.

Greatness can only be actualized after it is witnessed, and her father was the first to spot it. She began honing her craft in fifth grade, playing in park district leagues around the area.

It was on these fields, under the watchful eyes of her father and coaches Bill Marquardt and Curtis Bradley, where she developed her comet trail fastball. She also shared these experiences with teammates Julie Arvia and Jenny Anderson.

It was at the ages of 10, 11 and 12 where a comrardarie was hatched, a chemistry which in 1991, would take them places never seen before or since by a Scouts softball team. “We would play all summer. We had a really good core,” said McMahon Beckwith. “We had been together for years and had a strong sense of team.”

The Season

By 1991, the Scouts possessed the talent and work ethic characteristic of any good team. Trefny was in her third season and the players were accustomed to her hard- charging ways. An injection of youth -- Beckwith McMahon and Anderson had been called up to the varsity as freshmn the previous year -- provided depth and athleticism.

Although a locker room mix of underclassman with juniors and seniors can at times be toxic, not this group. No, these Scouts possessed a unifying gene which had as much to do with their success that season as their ability to lay down a bunt and hit the cut-off man.

“I remember how skilled they were, but the kids were cohesive and got along so well. There were a lot of laughs,” said assistant coach Tammy McHaney, who spent 13 seasons as Lake Forest’s field hockey coach, winning six state championships.

They rolled through the regular season behind the arm of Beckwith McMahon, who was an All-County and All-Conference selection that season. The Scouts' 23 wins were the most in the school’s history.

They reached the regional championship where they faced Mundelein, long the conference’s best program. Lake Forest defeated the Mustangs to advance to the sectional championship. Next up was Fremd and the right to go downstate. They won. And with it, the validation of years of hard work. But also something else.

All business most of the time, Trefny wanted to reward her team for their unprecedented accomplishment. She took them out for ice cream.

“She was so hard core. It was a big deal that she did that for us,” said Beckwith McMahon.

Said Trefny: “Everybody was so excited. I bought it for the entire team.

Funny how you remember the little things.

A week later, without much fan fare, they boarded a bus for the 190-mile trek to Pekin, Ill., to play in the Elite Eight. No pep rallies, just a stop for pizza on the way down. Used to playing on the minimalist front lawn of the high school, this was a stadium with lights, bleachers and a large crowd.

“We had never been exposed to anything like that,” said Beckwith McMahon.

As it had been all season, once they got between the lines, the Scouts played like champions. The game was tied at one going into the seventh. Their opponent, Mascoutah, scratched a run off Beckwith McMahon in the final inning and prevailed 2-1, ending Lake Forest’s star-crossed season. Always the competitor, Trefny is asked what she remembers about the end of the game.

“I turned around and kicked the first aid kit halfway down the dugout,” said Trefny.

She knew how fleeting success can be, that you can coach a lifetime and only get one shot at a state championship. The following season, Lake Forest won more games but lost early in the playoffs. They’ve never made it back downstate. Trefny left after 1997 and is now a registered nurse living in Belle City, Wis.

Beckwith McMahon would take her talents to Boston College where she pitched for two seasons before injuring her shoulder. She now lives in Genoa City, Wis., with her husband and four children. You wouldn’t be surprised to know that she coaches her 11-year-old daughter Ashley's softball team.

You also wouldn’t be surprised to know how when coaching, you can see much of the lessons taught to her daughter come from those who coached her.

“She doesn’t want to give up softball. The best thing I can do is coach her,” said Beckwith McMahon. “Between Sue and my dad (John), they were phenomenal in what they taught me. It seems like yesterday. People still remember me and that team.”

Said Trefny: “I’m still real pound of them. They weren’t the most talented or most skilled team, but they got into what I taught them. In the long run it paid off.”

And don't forget the ice cream.

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