Calling her own game: Ronan catcher doesn't let health issues stop her from playing softball

Kaitlyn Sassaman looks comfortable on the field. Even crouching down, she looks at home. As a catcher, she spends a lot of time crouching. She has a sore hip, but it’s not noticeable. On this day, she takes pitch after pitch from Carston Rhine while the rest of the team works a base running drill; every once in awhile, Sassaman compliments Rhine on a pitch. As the practice comes to an end, Sassaman helps round up gear before walking over for an interview. At 5’2”, she does not tower over anybody, but what she lacks in height, she makes up for in personality.

Sassaman has made a name for herself over the last four years as an excellent catcher for the Ronan Maidens’ softball team. The RHS senior has already signed on to play college softball at Jamestown University in North Dakota. On top of that, Sassaman’s grade point average is actually above a 4.0.

Those accomplishments are enough to make Sassaman sound like an impressive young woman.

However, there’s more to her story than what meets the eye.

It’s been just over a year since Sassaman was diagnosed with cancer.

It started with a lump on her throat during her junior year.

“My mom claimed there was a lump in my throat,” Sassaman said, “She made me go to the doctor.”

After some tests, things got a little more real. Her dad, Dale Sassaman, said he knew it was serious when he got called to come back in for the results of the biopsy.

“They wouldn’t have asked me to come in if it was negative,” he said.

When Dale picked his daughter up from school to learn the results of the biopsy, he said they knew what was coming. “But she didn’t bury her head in it.”

After Sassaman and her family found out she had thyroid cancer, the first thing she did was think about softball. After all, softball season was just weeks away. According to her dad, she took her schedule with when she went to see the surgeon.

The diagnosis was difficult to take, she said.

“At first I thought, ‘no way’. It was super frustrating,” she said. She scheduled her surgery around her softball games, and was not thrilled with the timing.

“It was my junior year, I thought, ‘this is big for me. I don’t have time for this. This is a recruiting year. My stats need to be good!’”

***

Sassaman’s softball career started at a young age.

“I started playing t-ball when I was 7. I hated it,” she said. “I was in the outfield picking dandelions. The best part was the snacks,” she recalled with a laugh.

So, 7-year-old Sassaman turned to something a little more hardcore. “I was like ‘this is a joke – where’s the real deal?’” she said.

She picked up softball shortly thereafter and never looked back. Sassaman also stuck with the same position on the field.

“I’ve always caught,” she said. “That was the first position I ever had.”

“I just liked the little tough kids, the little mean ones that knock people down and throw people out,” she said with a mischievous look on her face.

Throughout her softball career, Sassaman has had a partner in crime, so to speak, in Carston Rhine. Rhine, who is also a senior at Ronan, is the starting pitcher for the Maidens. “We’ve been playing together since 10U. Since we were like 8,” Rhine said, “I used to not be a very good pitcher. I would like, throw it over the fence, and she would say ‘it’s all right’ and get back down to catch.”

This year will be the last year the two get to play catch, but over the years, they’ve gotten very good at their sport.

Sassaman calls the game from behind home plate. She tells Rhine what kind of ball to throw. “It’s based on the batter,” she explained. “First I look at them and see, are they confident or are they shaking at the knees? Where they are standing? I find it super simple; I love calling games.”

Of her pitcher, Sassaman said, “I love catching for her. We’ve been doing it ever since we were like 8.”

First year Head Coach Kellie Manyhides said Sassaman is a great catcher.

“She’s the best blocking catcher I’ve seen, and she has a very powerful arm. She’s just all around solid,” Manyhides said after practice last week.

She then looked over her shoulder at Sassaman, then said in a low voice with a smile, “Without trying to blow up her little ego there, I honestly think she’s the best catcher in the state.”

***

Sassaman started getting serious about softball when she entered high school. She played during the spring season, but also played for the Avalanche in Missoula, and even an ASA team based out of Washington.

“It was always my dream to play college softball,” she said. During her freshman year she started getting a player profile together and attending some recruiting events. After a few years of that, she was starting to get burned out on the college dream. Early on in her junior year, she thought of giving it up.

“There was a while there when I didn’t want to do it anymore because it just started getting hard,” she said, “I realized all the work I would have to put in. I didn’t want to do it.”

Luckily, her parents were able to convince her otherwise.

“My parents were like ‘c’mon, you’re only not doing it because you don’t want to work hard.’ I almost decided not to do it anymore, but I talked to a lot of people and I just realized I just can’t be lazy,” she said.

Sassaman said the game was not the hard part. “It was the recruiting part that I hated, contacting all the coaches. It wasn’t the softball part.”

Her dad was a big part of her growth on the softball field, and of her decision to stick with the sport.

“I told her, ‘you’re good enough to do this,’” he said. “Have a little confidence.”

Added Sassaman: “When I almost quit he really sat down and talked to me and made me realize. He’s my man.”

When she was little, she said her dad would help her on the field. “He’s where I learned everything. He would always come out to the field with me. He knew when I was getting frustrated. He was my coach for a while. That didn’t go so well. I’m really stubborn,” she said with a laugh.

Her dad seconded that statement about stubbornness, and reminisced on her early days. “We would walk to the bus stop and play catch while we waited,” he said.

***

Sassaman was supposed to be out for six weeks after the surgery. She said she was mad about the timing, but her dad thinks otherwise.

“I don’t think it was bad timing, I think it was good timing, because I think her not wanting to miss softball was actually the best thing for her,” he said. “It drove her to get back to things. It drove her through recovery.”

That six-week recovery turned into a two-week break. She only missed a few weeks of the season, and was once again behind home plate.

After the surgery, Sassaman had to take radiation pills. She had to stay away from people after taking them. “I hid out in the basement for a week, away from my family,” she said.

The surgery and recovery took a lot out of her. “The energy wasn’t there. My levels weren’t where they were supposed to be. It was frustrating because I hate sucking,” she said.

Manyhides described Sassaman’s work ethic today.

“She has like a 4.3 GPA. She’s that person that is up every morning working out and then goes to school, then works hard for two and a half, three hours at practice after school. She’s an amazing individual,” Manyhides said, “You can tell the younger girls look up to her. She just has a presence about her.”

Sassaman’s dad and Rhine know it, too. “She’s really competitive, usually first to the practice field and last to leave,” he said.

Rhine added, “She practices 24/7. She just really tries hard in everything she does.”

That hard work paid off for Sassaman when she signed with the Jamestown softball team. The NAIA team has a good program, but Sassaman was most impressed with the academics. She plans to pursue a career in physical therapy.

While things are looking up for Sassaman, recent blood tests came back with a bit of bad news. She has to start back up with the radiation pills this week. “I don’t really worry about it,” she said.

What she is worried about is not taking another second-place finish. The team has finished second at state twice in the last three years. “I’m tired of getting second,” she said. “It’s our turn to win.”

Through all the doctor appointments and prescriptions, Sassaman seems to have kept a positive attitude and her mind on one thing. “Ball is life,” she said as she drug her cleat back and forth across her favorite patch of ground, the ball diamond.