Wheels’ World: ‘Nice job, Caldwell’

Cindy Caldwell became a member of the Fast Pitch Hall of Fame in Decatur recently.  At church Sunday this accomplishment was brought to the congregation’s attention. Typical, Cindy spoke up saying, “not me, our team the West Frankfort Cardinals of whom I was a member was put in the Hall of Fame.”

Cindy Caldwell, right, with former Christopher coach Tom Wheeler.

To me, Caldwell is my ex short-stop at Christopher Community High School, one of the best I ever had, and she was also my first Black Diamond All Conference player. To students at Rend Lake College, she is Ms. Caldwell, associate professor in mathematics.

Going to the garage I came up with this info on Caldwell’s background. After graduating from Christopher she became a “Wren” at RLC (that’s what the women teams were called while the men’s teams were Warriors). For the Wrens she did it all, playing volleyball, basketball and softball. From the “small world department” her volleyball and softball coach was John M Kretz who played short stop on the Zeigler Raiders fast pitch team while Caldwell’s High School coach (me) played second base on the same team. Cindy was elected Most Valuable Player by her teammates that year.

At RLC her coach in basketball was Carol Whipple, assisted by Lila Waugh where she had CCHS classmate Christy Cook as a teammate. As a freshman in softball Cindy was All Conference at short-stop along with Wrens first baseman Kelly Stewart (Benton) in the Southern Illinois College Conference.

Playing short stop for Coach Tim Broy with the WF Cardinals was a great experience for the now math teacher as she was surrounded by the best fast pitch players in the south including ex- Bearcat Sue Ramsey. Winning state with this team was “one of my biggest thrills,” she said.

A very typical game for Cindy was hitting a grand slam and triple while going 4-for-5 against a good team from McLeansboro. Checking some clippings I noticed it was not unusual for the infield to turn double plays, Caldwell to second baseman Ramona Weiser (who’s Dad Raymond also helped coach) to first basemen Lisa Bernhardt.

When I first watched Cindy play I was sure of one thing, she will do what it takes to win, and she was and is such a great competitor. All the time I coached her I never called her Cindy, it was always “Caldwell.”

So let me finish by saying, ‘Nice job, Caldwell!’