Softball
Favorite athlete: Jalen Hurts
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Hitting the game winning home run in the same game as my sister hit a home run.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Tripping as I was running to second base in a game.
Music on playlist: Tame Impala, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Tyler the Creator, SZA
Future plans: Attending the University of Pittsburgh undecided in the college of business.
Words to live by: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream”- C. S. Lewis
One goal before turning 30: To get my MBA
One thing people don’t know about me: I play the ukulele.
By GORDON GLANTZ
When Heather Gehlhaus took over as head softball coach at Springfield, she was facing the potentially difficult challenge of being the team’s third coach in as many years.
There could have been pushback, especially from the team’s seniors, but that was not the case.
And, as the Spartans found themselves in the District One AAAA playoffs for the first time in five years, she knows where the newfound success began.
While senior catcher Taylor Schulz hit over .500 - and with big power numbers - out of the cleanup spot, it only told part of the story.
Schulz led, and the rest of the team followed.
“I wanted to step up,” said Schulz. “(Gehlhaus) came in and took everything really seriously. She treated everyone on an equal level, which has been really nice.
“With Springfield being small, she realizes we don’t get as many travel players. She has taken a lot of her time to work with everyone, whether it is fielding or hitting. She was an outfielder at Millersville. She has been really great. I wish I had her in the prior years. She is going to be really good for our school in the coming years, too.”
While she is focused on building a program for the long haul, Gehlhaus realizes what Schulz has meant, even it’s only for one year after the reset button was pressed.
“Taylor? She’s just a really great kid,” Gehlhaus said. “She stepped up as a leader this year, from the very beginning of when I started. With all my varsity girls, I feel like I got buy-in, and Taylor really helped to lead it as a senior.
“I remember one of the first practices. She was, like, ‘Hey, girls, go clean up the stuff.’ I was, like, ‘I love it. I have another little assistant coach. This is great.’ She really stepped up as a leader. I would say she is a leader by example more, but she will be vocal, too, at times.”
Battery Charged
A huge of part of Springfield’s rediscovered success has been the unique situation of Taylor Schulz catching for her sophomore sister, Ashley, who unfortunately was sidelined late in the season with a knee injury.
“My sister stepped up a lot, too,” said Taylor Schulz. “It’s really nice, not just because we are with each other at home a lot. It’s almost like a different relationship that we have on the field. We both take the sport very seriously. We’re both very competitive. We can both beat ourselves down because of it. I always want to play for her, and to do my best for her, because I know how much she loves the sport and how much she wants to do well.
“It’s really great, honestly. I think it brings us a lot closer together. With this bond we have, I’m able to see if she is struggling with some pitches and I’m able to tell my coach to not call this pitch or to call that pitch more.”
Aside from defensively, Ashley generally batted third and Taylor fourth in the batting order.
“We always try to pick each other up, too, because of where we are in the batting order – before she got injured – she was right in front of me,” said Schulz. “We would just try to pick each other up if one of us didn’t get a hit. I would always try to get her in if she was on base.”
Gehlhaus, who won a state title at Hatboro-Horsham, comes out of softball-playing family with a several cousins who were scholastic standouts.
However, she realizes the battery combination of sisters is unique.
“Honestly, I don’t think I have ever seen it before in my life, and I don’t know if I ever will,” the Spartans’ coach said. “It was one of the best things I ever experienced. They have each other’s backs and they are working hard for each other. Ashley wants to pitch strikes, and her sister wants to get her sister’s strikes called. It’s really great, because they know each other so well.
“I felt like the buy-in was really easy with them. I made sure I listened to what works and what hasn’t worked. I communicated with them. Taylor and I have very strong communication skills. She is able to tell me if something is not working, pitching-wise or hitting-wise, we just have that relationship and that bond. I have never seen a combination like them in my life. They have each other’s backs. They are good sisters to each other.”
For Schulz, who plays travel ball for Xpress Elite 18U as an outfielder, she realizes that she was fortunate to have had the chance to work with her sister.
“We bond more, emotionally,” she said. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s just really nice to be able to have that bond with her on the field and to get have this season and to play with her one last year.
“It’s hard, realizing I’ll never play a high school game with her again, but I know she will recover from her injury and do great and bounce back.”
Without Ashley Schulz pitching, the Spartans were in a bit of a bind in the first round of the playoffs against Villa Maria, a game they ultimately lost, but Schulz had a positive mindset.
“No matter how it (went), it’s been really great to play with the team the last few years,” Schulz said. “It’s really cool that we were able to make it to playoffs. It had been five years, so it had been a while.”
Into the Deep End
While Schulz works diligently on softball, she found the time to still be a three-sport athlete.
She was the goalie for the water polo team and a key contributor on the swim team.
The water polo gig occurred by happenstance.
“I had no idea that it was really even a sport or anything,” said Schulz. “Some people who I knew played. One of my good friends said, ‘You should play.’ When COVID hit, they had sessions on learning how to do it at one of the local country clubs nearby.
“Early on into the preseason workouts, they realized they were going to need a goalie. They asked me to do it, so I pretty much took up that position of goalie.”
And the rest, as they say, was history.
“It’s a really cool sport,” she said. “I wish I knew about it my freshman year. It’s cool how it works out. The team was always great. We actually won back-to-back state championships for small schools and one of the Beast of the East tournaments. Even though we’re not the biggest school, we had a lot of participation with it.”
Come the winter, Schulz stayed in the pool for the successful Spartans’ girls’ swim team that won SOL and districts the last two years.
Schulz’s events are 100 fly and 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay. She declined an option for the Last Chance Meet to make districts, feeling satisfied with hitting PRs each year and moving on to train for softball.
“It’s really good for you,” said Schulz. “The team environment is really great.
“In all of these sports, I have just been able to meet so many great people. The team environments are really good.”
Beyond Sports
As dedicated of an athlete as she is, Schulz made the decision to not do much more than maybe play club softball while attending Pitt and majoring in business.
“I ultimately decided that I didn’t really want to play in college,” she said. “I was more concerned with picking an institution that would better suit my academics. I wanted to prioritize that over sports. That’s definitely why I decided not to play. Also, I didn’t think I wanted to put as much time into that in college as I originally wanted to.”
For her part, Gehlhaus respects Schulz’s decision.
“She is not playing softball in college, no, but she easily could. I say that to her all the time,” said the coach, who chose the Division II level because she knew it would mean more playing time. “I don’t know how her recruiting process went. I don’t know if nobody really pushed for it, or if she didn’t really push for it, but I tell her, all the time, ‘Man, I wish I was here last year. I could’ve helped to get you recruited.’ She easily has to talent to play in college. But, you know, a lot of people just want to have fun in school and focus on college and are done with sports.”
While she is not 100 percent sure what she wants to pursue for a career, Schulz foresees getting an MBA and making it work for her in the business world.
Schulz, who worked part-time as an office assistant at Ally Services Co., split her time between Springfield and Eastern Center for Arts and Technology (located across from Upper Moreland High School) to enhance her business and technology skills and experience a more work-like environment.
She earned OSHA and Word Certification and learned the basics of accounting, presentation skills, etc.
Schulz also immersed herself in service-related extracurricular activities, such as National Honor Society, the Sustainability Club and the Interact Club, which works with an organization called. Mitzvah Circle.
“(Mitzvah Circle) helps families in surrounding counties, if they need materials and supplies for their families,” she explained. “I always like to do community service. It is a really great feeling being able to help people.”
Throw in sports, and it’s a busy lifestyle as a student-athlete with weighted GPA in the 4.3 range and a community volunteer.
“It has taken up a lot of my schedule,” said Schulz, who was also a musician until 8th grade and still plays the ukulele for fun. “In the end, it is really worth it to get to participate in all these sports.
“I usually try to get my schoolwork done as quickly as possible so that I can get in somewhat of a good sleep. I try to evenly balance out my focus of athletics and academics. But, if there is ever a time where I feel like I’m struggling, I put my academics first. I never want to feel like I’m falling behind.”
Shulz wanted to thank a lot of people – from coaches (travel and school, particularly Gehlhaus) to friends and teammates – but especially her immediate family.
“I want to thank my parents (Rachel and Robert) for always supporting me,” she said. “They always had my back, no matter what. They always believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself.
“And, I’d also like to thank my sister. This season, and last season, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish as much without her. She has definitely been my rock. She has always been a big motivator for me to want to do better for myself and for my team.”
While she only had the privilege of coaching her one year, Gehlhaus believes Schulz will be a building block for the future of the program.
Moreover, she will flat-out miss her but wishes her well.
“Definitely, a thousand percent,” said Gehlhaus. “She knew all the ins and outs. I would be able to tell her something, and she would tell the team if I felt like I wasn’t getting through to them. She was a very enjoyable player to have.
“I’m so proud of who she is – not only as a softball player, but as a person, too. I can’t wait to see what she does in her future. I’m lucky that I got to work with her for a year and see how good of a player she was.”
