Softball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley & Mike Trout
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies & Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the PIAA-AAAA State Championship. This was a very special moment not only because it was something so unexpected, but it was a huge accomplishment with the girls that I’ve known and played softball with my whole life. We are like family, and it was cool to have a perfect ending to our high school softball career together. It’s something I’ll never forget.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: We have a lot of different personalities on our Souderton team, and we can be really awkward sometimes. Last year, anything that involved Haley Delany was pretty entertaining – she and I had a great signature belly/chest bump.
Music on your iPod: Hip-Hop, Rap, & Country.
Future plans: To play softball and major in Psychology at Millersville University.
Favorite motto or words to live by: “Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions be louder than your words.”
One goal before you turn 30: I want to travel to Italy.
One thing people don’t know about you: I was born eight weeks premature. I weighed three pounds and had a hole in my heart.
By Mary Jane Souder
It’s a cold spring day, much too cold for softball.
With a runner on first base and the tying run at home plate in the top of the seventh inning, Souderton’s standout freshman pitcher, Alex Scheeler, falls behind in the count 2-0.
Ever a calming presence, senior catcher Morgan Yoder simply nods to her pitcher and says, “You’re good, you’re good.” And Scheeler is good, coaxing a grounder back to the mound for an out on the next pitch as the Indians hold on for the win.
It’s a brief exchange that most fans won’t notice, but talk to coach Steph Rummel, and she points to Yoder’s steady leadership behind the plate as a key to the success of last year’s state championship team and also the strong start of this year’s squad.
“I think honestly Morgan is the heart of the team this year,” the Indians’ coach said. “She was definitely a big piece of our puzzle last year too.
“It’s great because she steps into this role as a captain leader, and even last year, she was a leader. She works so well with the girls, she works so well with the coaching staff. She’s always one step ahead of every other girl on that field, and that’s the great thing about her is that she’s almost like a coach on the field. She takes control, and she does such a great job.”
Yoder is the Indians’ field general between the lines, and although she possesses an irrepressible spirit, her leadership style is almost understated as she directs the Indians’ defense and calls every pitch for the pitchers.
“I give her free rein to call pitches, and she does a great job with that,” Rummel said. “I called the pitches when she was a sophomore, and when she asked if she could call them herself, I said, ‘Absolutely, go ahead,’ and I feel like the games have gone so much better with her calling them.
“On and off the field, she’s a great kid. I cannot say enough about her.”
***
Yoder grew up playing both softball and soccer, adding field hockey when she got to middle school. When she entered high school, Yoder gave up soccer to focus on softball but continued field hockey ‘for fun.’
She was penciled in to be a varsity player as a freshman, but things didn’t exactly go as planned. On Jan. 28, 2012, during an indoor hockey game, she collided with the goalie and went down with a knee injury. Two days later, an MRI confirmed that she had suffered a torn ACL.
“I had never really had an injury, so that was my first one,” she said. “It was basically heartbreaking.”
In February, Yoder had surgery to repair her ACL, and one month later, she had a second surgery.
“I didn’t have full extension of my knee,” she said. “Initially, they thought it was scar tissue, but it was actually because my muscles were too tight.”
For one long month, Yoder’s leg was in full cast with the hopes it would give her full extension. It didn’t. Nor did extensive physical therapy.
And at the Grand View Sports Medicine Nova Care Center in Harleysville, the grueling exercise to straighten the leg – which requires the assistance of two physical therapists – still carries the name ‘The Morgan’ since Yoder did it longer than any patient before or since.
“I didn’t really expect what was to come with rehabbing, and it basically took a year before I came back,” she said.
Although sidelined for her freshman season, Yoder refused to stay away from the diamond, attending every practice she could and keeping the scorebook at games. Her sister Taylor – who went on to play collegiate field hockey at La Salle - was a senior and had played for the team until her final year.
“It shows you your true colors and shows how much determination you really have,” Yoder said of the experience. “It showed me how much I love softball and how much I wanted to get back to that sport.
“I knew most of the girls on that team because of Taylor and because of past softball experiences, and I definitely saw it more from a coaching standpoint than a player’s standpoint.”
Despite playing a position that is hard on knees, Yoder, who has been catching since her U12 playing days, never considered changing positions.
“At first I was nervous about catching again, but I just worked really hard to get back and build my legs,” she said. “My leg is stronger than it was before.
“It was hard, but I think (the injury) made me more determined and made me work harder to get where I wanted to be.”
That hard work has put Yoder in an enviable spot. She has signed a letter of intent to accept a softball scholarship to Millersville, and the senior captain has a state softball title on her resume.
“At the start of the season last year, our goal was just to have a winning record and make (district) playoffs,” Yoder said. “When we made playoffs, it kept going and going.
“It all feels like a dream in some ways. It all happened so quickly, so you couldn’t really be in the moment and capture it all. You see the effects now – people will say, ‘Oh, you’re a state champ,’ but I still don’t think that we fully understand how big of a deal it was.”
Yoder’s key role on that squad may have been overlooked, but it was the then junior catcher calling all the pitches during the Indians’ magical run to a state crown.
“I’ve been catching for so long that it’s just something I’ve kind of picked up on,” she said. “I like catching because there are so many roles.
“Even when I wasn’t a captain last year, I still felt like a leader. You call the pitches, you call the plays, and there’s a lot of communication – I’m pretty loud, so I like that. I like how it’s more than one aspect throughout the game.”
Yoder - a career member of the Thunderbirds travel team - mirrors the calm demeanor of her coach behind the plate.
“She’s just a great coach,” the senior captain said of Rummel “She keeps us calm, and we play so much better when it’s less stressful. I think her personality brings out the best in us.”
Rummel points to Yoder’s relationship with the team’s young pitcher this season as significant.
“I definitely think she’s a mentor for Alex,” the Indians’ coach said. “She’s constantly talking to Alex, and you have that leader behind the plate – I think they’re doing great together.
“Morgan is an extension of the coach at the girls’ level. She makes sure the girls are all on the same page. There are a lot of things I don’t need to say or tell her – she knows exactly what we want, and she makes sure the others follow suit. It’s nice to have somebody you can just look at, and they know what you want and what you’re thinking and they then do that for the girls.
“You don’t think of the catcher being that much of a pivotal role, but I think she – with (pitcher) Erelle Sowers – played the biggest roles last year. It’s hard to find a good catcher, and she is phenomenal. Hands down, she is one of the best catchers I have ever watched, especially at her age.”
Off the diamond, Yoder – an excellent student - is enrolled in three AP classes this year. She is very active in school life and is one of eight students serving on the newly-formed Athletic Leadership Council.
“We just run the student section and try and get people to come out to every sporting event and just keep the school spirit,” she said. “It’s a cool thing.”
She’s also a member of the Link Crew, a group of seniors and juniors who help acclimate freshmen to the high school.
A self-described people person, Yoder plans to major in sports psychology.
“I was leaning toward guidance counselor initially because I like working with people and helping people, but I’m kind of thinking of going into coaching if I get a chance,” Yoder said. “I definitely know I want to work with people and help them evolve and get better.”
