The Drill: Paris Van Dyke, the current great Edgerton/Southwest Minnesota Christian softball pitcher

EDGERTON — Do you remember your cool relative? You know, the one who excelled and was everything you wanted to grow up and become?

Paris Van Dyke remembers her cool relative and pitcher Sierra Van Dyke, and Paris is currently living out those childhood fantasies of pitching for the dynamic Edgerton/Southwest Minnesota Christian Flying Dutchmen softball team.

Sierra Van Dyke was on the team when the Flying Dutchmen won one of many state softball titles. Now as a senior herself, Paris Van Dyke has similar aspirations to lift hardware with the E/SWC team come her final inning of high school softball.

And she has had just as good of a start as anyone could ever ask.

As of May 8, the senior Van Dyke had a 7-0 pitching record this season and has come up clutch for the Flying Dutchmen while batting cleanup. E/SWC has a team record of 8-0.

Paris has an outstanding fastball. Truly one of the best in the area. She also throws a deceptive changeup to keep batters guessing.

During a clash with stout Wabasso, down two runs, Van Dyke hit a two-out, two-run single to tie the game up. The Flying Dutchmen would go on to win the game by a score of 3-2.

Something you might not know about Van Dyke is that despite being named after the French City of Light, she is not as interested in visiting the Eiffel Tower as in touring Greece. She also raises and breeds Nigerian dwarf goats, and she sells them intermittently to help raise money for college tuition.

She is committed to the Southwest Minnesota State University softball team.

Paris comes from a family of baseball and softball players. She remembers in her childhood always having a ball in her hand. She has an older sister, Paige Van Dyke, who is graduating from South Dakota State University with a nursing degree this spring, and a younger sister, Presley Van Dyke, a freshman at SWC and pitcher on the Flying Dutchmen junior varsity team.

To see a video of Paris Van Dyke, go online to www.dglobe.com . Here’s a sample of our interview:

QUESTION: What are your strengths as a pitcher?

ANSWER: As a pitcher my strength is my fastball and I also like to throw in a change(up) as well.

QUESTION: What does it mean to be playing on such a storied E/SWC softball team?

ANSWER: The Dutchmen softball team has been very successful for a lot of years with (Andrew) Fleischman as our coach. So there is a little bit of pressure, but I think it is good pressure because it keeps us working hard.

QUESTION: What is some of the best advice you have received in your athletic career?

ANSWER: Some of the advice I have gotten is to control the controllables, and that is your attitude towards your teammates, your coaches, the umps, your opponents and some days they are going to go good and some days they are going to go bad.