For today’s “Throwback Thursday” we toss it so far back we pull a muscle…

First, though, here’s something you didn’t know… I used to be the Publisher and Managing Editor of Student Sports Magazine, which in the late 1990’s and through the 2000’s was a great magazine covering high school sports nationwide including softball

In the March 2001 issue we did a feature on Catherine Osterman which seems appropriate to pull out after she helped the USSSA Pride win another NPF title recently.

At this time she was in the midst of her senior season in Texas… see how much of the info published over 13 years ago you knew!

 

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CAT QUICK

Standout Texas pitcher Catherine Osterman may be known as “Cat” but opposing hitters are usually the ones hacking

by John Hillman

Catherine “Cat” Osterman didn’t earn her nickname with a blazing fastball. Nor did the senior’s quick and graceful moves on the basketball court inspire her name’s shortened version. “Cat” simply arose out of convenience.

“Teammates started calling me ‘Cat’ in the eighth grade,” the Cypress Springs (Tex.) High softball and basketball standout says. “Catherine just took too long to say when things started getting hectic.”

On the diamond, radar guns routinely clock the 6-foot-1 feline’s fastball at 62 to 65 mph, and last season, the lefthander struck out 391 batters in 176.1 innings while giving up only one earned run.

Osterman performs equally well on the court. Through 25 games into the 2000-01 campaign, she was averaging 16.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 5.4 blocked shots per game.