A day before her team was to leave for the Women’s College World Series, Heather Tarr was asked for a defining moment in this Washington softball season. On this subject, there would seem to be many pleasant options to choose from, this being another wildly successful season for the Huskies.
The UW coach, instead, thought back to the darkest day of the year, back to a Jan. 20 meeting with her team. It was there, with the Huskies gathered in a board room, that Tarr delivered the worst-possible news: star catcher Morganne Flores had suffered a torn knee ligament in practice and would be out for the entire season, a devastating blow that in the moment appeared as if might derail the Huskies’ hopes of a return to the WCWS before the season even began.
The room was stunned silent. After talking through the situation, Tarr asked if any of the upperclassmen wanted to stand up and speak to the team.
No one budged.
Finally, an unlikely voice in the very back of the room stood up. It was freshman Noelle Hee, still three weeks away from playing in her first collegiate game.
“Bless her heart,” Tarr said, “she comes up to the front of the room, and all the seniors are in tears … and she stands up and says, ‘You know what, I know I’m just a freshman, but we’re going to be OK, you guys.’
“And it was the coolest thing.”
Hee had hoped to find some words of comfort for her teammates.
“Don’t get me wrong, my heart was racing when I got up there,” she recalled this week. “Being a freshman, I still had this objective point of view of seeing how great this team has been and seeing how strong these girls are. I remember saying, ‘You guys are really strong mentally and athletically,’ and then I added ‘and spiritually, if you’re into that.’ And everyone laughed at that.
“It was an emotional time, and I knew the other girls just didn’t have the words to put together right then and there, but would be the leaders that they are beyond that moment.”
Beyond that moment, beyond the injury to Flores, the Huskies flourished. They won their first 28 games of the season, spent nine weeks ranked No. 1 in the national polls, swept through a regional and a super regional at home and are back in Oklahoma City for the second year in a row. The No. 5 Huskies (49-8) open WCWS play at 11:30 a.m. PT Thursday against No. 4 Oklahoma (55-3).
Hee, an infielder from Orange, Calif., could be something of an X-factor for the Huskies. She has appeared in 49 games this season, typically as the designated player hitting sixth in the lineup, posting a .266 batting average with seven home runs and 24 runs batted in. In the Huskies’ 6-0 victory over Alabama on Saturday, she blasted a homer deep over the wall in left-center that might have bounced to Lake Washington if not for the presence of a second fence beyond the outfield wall.
“She’s a stud,” Tarr said.
Hee struggled a bit during Pac-12 play, hitting just .220 against conference opponents, and was talking through some of those issues with Tarr midway through the season. The coach reminded Hee of her own message to the team in January: “We’re going to be OK.”
As a freshman, Hee said the learning curve at this level has been steep.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that there’s so much more to learn,” she said. “Whether it’s trying to figure out a pitch sequence or knowing why you move a certain way in a swing. There are so many intricate pieces and it’s cool to see from the beginning of the year how much I’ve learned, but it’s even cooler to acknowledge how much more I still have to learn.”
It’s that kind of mature mindset that endeared Hee to her coaches and teammates so early. Hee, in turn, says she has grown from being immersed in Tarr’s program.
“I think that the space for me to feel comfortable to speak up in front of the team really speaks to our culture, the culture that Coach Tarr has created and that the girls keep going — that, hey, everyone’s opinion is valid,” Hee said. “When I was younger I was taught that the game doesn’t know your age, so at any moment in time someone could have a thought or idea that could be the difference.”
