Niles North teammates turn on talents at Stevenson Showcase

• Reprints

Niles North base runner Brittany Reilly, sliding under the tag of Deerfield's Emily Shanker this past spring, participated last weekend in an invite-only showcase at Stevenson High School. | Rob Hart~Sun-Times Media

Updated: October 28, 2011 12:25PM

Kristen Reichert and Brittany Reilly of Niles North grew near each other, have been teammates on numerous teams and last weekend at the Stevenson Softball Showcase displayed their skills to college scouts together.

Although the two won’t be graduating until the spring of 2013, Reichert and Reilly were invited with 88 other local high school players to partake in the two-day event to get their names out to colleges.

DePaul University, University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Lake Forest College and Aurora University were among the 17 schools present at the combine. The athletes invited were divided by high school conference into four teams: DuPage Valley/Upstate Eight, East Suburban Catholic/Mid-Suburban, Central Suburban/Fox Valley, and North Suburban/West Suburban.

On Friday each team played two games, and individual players were tested on their base-running ability and speed. Saturday morning the girls were put through individual positional tests before competing in their final game of the showcase.

Reichert, who plays first base and outfield, was not only thrilled to be invited to the event, but to be sharing the honor with her teammate and best friend Reilly.

“It’s pretty cool playing together, and it’s nice that were playing on a team with people from teams we’ve played before,” Reichert said.

Both agreed it was a different experience taking the field with girls they had previously competed against, but the day was more fun than cutthroat.

“We thought we were just going to do the skills competition, and then we found out we were going to be playing in the games,” Reichert said.

Being able to play softball collegiately as well as earning a scholarship was a notion that had been creeping around the girls’ minds all weekend.

“It’s a big deal,” Reilly said. “It’s definitely something that I’m trying to do.”

Reichert and Reilly had also agreed that if they were not invited to play college ball, that they would do whatever they could stay involved in the game, either by playing club ball or trying to walk on.

While the prospect of looking forward to a college career can be overwhelming, the girls still have time to work on their game and improve their chances of becoming official recruits. However that wasn’t stopping them from trying to impress a few scouts while they had the audience.

“I think they are looking for the hustle, if you make a mistake if you’re still hustling, working through it and trying to make the next play,” Reichert said of the recruiters.