After assisting Char Linhorst last season, Brittney Krodinger is the new head coach of the De Soto softball team.
Krodinger and her identical twin sister, Courtney, graduated from De Soto in 2015 after leading the Dragons to third place in the state (Class 3) in 2013 and the state championship in 2014. It remains De Soto’s only state title in the sport. Courtney will assist Brittney as the two try to rebuild the program to the elite level of their playing days.
Brittney said their mother, Nicole, will return as an assistant coach. She was an assistant while the twins were on the team.
What the Dragons needed the most after crashing to a record of 1-22 last season was stability in the head coaching position. It was a revolving door with Linhorst, Chris Woelich and Matt Guemmer over the last five years. Guemmer was the head coach for the two trips to state.
Courtney got married last month and I’ll be interviewing her and Brittney this week to find out what they’ve been up to since graduation and why they chose to come back to help their alma mater, which struggled athletically in the 2021-2022 school year.
De Soto allowed 48 runs in its last two softball games in 2021. Courtney gave up 48 earned runs in her last two seasons in the circle for the Dragons.
The softball team wasn’t alone.
In Keith Woodland’s first year as head football coach, De Soto was winless (0-10) last fall. Luke Schlichting turned a 5-13 boys soccer team in 2020 into a winning squad (13-8) that beat North County in a Class 2 District 1 game last fall, but Schlichting couldn’t recreate that magic on the pitch for the girls this spring when they scored only two goals and finished 1-17.
The Dragon boys and girls basketball teams were a combined 9-41 this winter. A year after splitting the Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools championship, the baseball team limped to the finish line in May with a 3-0 loss to Windsor in the Class 5 District 1 tournament and a record of 9-14.
Woodland, the Krodingers and Schlichting are all young and just getting started in their coaching careers. Like all coaches, they are constrained by the number of athletes who turn out, the skill of those who make the team and their commitment to four years of improvement. I always try to hammer home in this space that what you see on the playing field sometimes doesn’t reflect the many hours of preparation, largely unnoticed by everyone but the athletes and coaches themselves.
When the Krodingers wear the familiar green and white this fall, they’ll remind Dragon fans of those two days in Springfield in 2014 when Courtney was just about unhittable and Brittney locked down shortstop behind her as De Soto shut out Mexico 10-0 in the semifinals and then blanked Platte County 3-0 in the final. Courtney pitched complete games in both, going 13 innings and striking out 11 while allowing just three hits.
“I was mentally dialed in,” Courtney said after De Soto beat Platte County. “I visualized myself coming in and doing well and made sure I was prepared. To come out and win the school’s first championship, there’s no better feeling.”
In their senior season, Courtney hit .567, drove in 42 runs and had 13 doubles, six triples and five home runs. Brittney hit .352 with 18 extra base hits. The duo combined for 22 stolen bases. In the circle, Courtney was 19-2 and fanned 156 batters in 117 2/3 innings. Along with Bethany Canada (also in the class of 2015), who led the Dragons with 10 home runs, the Krodingers were named to the all-state team in 2014. Canada was a four-time all-state selection.
The twins went on to play at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, where they were both selected to the all-Missouri Valley Conference second team as seniors in 2019.
Seckman has new AD
At its June 21 meeting, the Fox C-6 Board of Education unanimously voted to hire Tracy Schmidt as the new activities director at Seckman High School. He had held the same position at Hazelwood East for the last three years.
Schmidt has taught at Hazelwood Central, University City High and Crystal City and was assistant women’s basketball coach and recruiting coordinator at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. from 2004-2007. He also was an assistant and head coach for the Maryville University baseball team from 1999-2004.
Schmidt replaces Ryun Kasten, the AD at Seckman for six years. He left to be an assistant principal at his alma mater, Herculaneum High.