A first-team All-State softball player from the 2019 Lady Dutch will remain in the dugout for the 2020 team, but will no longer compete.

UNI Freshman Maddie Parks will join Head Coach Teresa Thompson’s staff as an assistant on the young, but potential-filled Pella softball team this summer. Parks had an incredible final season for the Lady Dutch softball team — hitting .505 with 34 runs scored and 24 stolen bases, winning 11 games in the circle with a 3.28 ERA and 146 strikeouts in 160 innings.

Head Coach Teresa Thompson is hopeful Parks will be able to relate well with this year’s team, especially because she was a captain and clear leader for many of these girls just one year ago.

“She’s got a great knack for the game, she knows the game well, she can help with the pitching and hitting perspective, and she’ll just have some great insight to our practices and share with our girls,” Thompson says.

Parks was off to a fast start as a true freshman with the UNI Softball team this spring before the NCAA season was cancelled. Maddie threw 8 innings as a pitcher, giving up just two earned runs. Parks also posted her first collegiate walk, run scored, and run-batted-in in limited action in early March.