Right from the start, Brandy Valentine ’96 was an impact player in North Central’s softball program. The outfielder was a First Team All-College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) selection and the CCIW’s Player of the Year as a freshman in 1993, establishing a single-season school record for doubles (19) and helping lead the Cardinals to a CCIW championship.
Maintaining that level of success - becoming a four-time First Team All-CCIW and two-time All-Region selection - required a mountain of hard work and discipline, which Valentine was able to summit through her genuine love of the sport.
“I had played softball my whole life, but once I got to North Central I had a new source teaching me a whole different discipline,” she says. “It changed how I looked at the game. It was a new way of thinking and a new way of playing.
“Coach (Jim Kulawiak) was a big part of that, with the drills and discipline we got every day. He always talked to us about having a firm handshake, which I still have, and we always had to make sure we ran on and off the field, which I still do. You get those things instilled in you and they stay with you.”
Evidence of Valentine’s impact on the Cardinals’ program resonates throughout the team’s record book. She graduated as North Central’s all-time leader in hits (206), runs batted in (113) and batting average (.417), and still holds career records for runs scored (193), doubles (58), triples (20) and home runs (13). She is also the single-season school record holder for home runs (8 in 1996), doubles (19 in 1993) and triples (10 in 1995). Valentine also put together a school-record 23-game hitting streak in 1993.
“It’s surprising,” she says of her standing in the program’s history. “I just went and played ball like I knew how to play ball, not to break records or anything. But I’m pretty proud of it.”
Valentine is the third softball player and the 12th female inductee into North Central’s Athletic Hall of Fame since the inaugural class in 2004.
“To be included as one of those few is kind of mind-boggling,” she says. “I think it’s great how women are always included. For the College to recognize women in sports is a very good thing. I’m very thankful and honored that I was chosen, when all I thought I was doing was playing ball and doing my best.”
