Edwardsville coach could reach more milestones with nationally ranked team

Lori Blade has reached the point of her 20-year coaching career where each new season presents another new milestone.

Last week, she led her Edwardsville Tigers to victory over Mater Dei, the 600th win over her career on the softball field. She’ll cross that same threshold as a basketball coach with the Lady Tigers’ fourth wins this coming fall.

Blade already is the only coach in IHSA history with more than 500 wins in two sports. Between her 12 years at Edwardsville and eight at Carrollton High School, she’s won two state basketball titles, placed second in softball, and made 13 more state tournament appearances in the two sports combined.

Her success is testament to longevity and consistency, she’ll admit, but winning is not coaching’s only allure and it’s rarely something that’s ever achieved alone.

“Sure I’m proud because of the time and work we’ve put in, but it’s not why you go into this,” Blade said. “You go into it because you love the game, you want to work with kids and give them an opportunity if they want to go on and play more. It also provides a lot of kids with a ton of good memories.

“I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of that and every kid throughout the program — from Carrollton to here — should take a lot of pride in those 600 wins. That’s not all on me.”

Blade and her softball Tigers are getting plenty of attention from observers who are predicting more milestones ahead for this season.

The Tigers finished last season 36-4 with a disappointing 4-3 loss to Lincoln-Way East in the Class 4A Super Sectional.

But the core of that team is back this year, including nine seniors. With a 6-2 start, during which it has outscored opponent a combined 108-18, Edwardsville is ranked No. 9 nationally in the USA Today Super 25 high school softball poll.

Edwardsville‘s unbeaten string ended Saturday when the Tigers dropped a doubleheader to Normal, losing 4-3 and 9-8.

The USA Today national poll is voted on by members of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. The Tigers are the only Illinois team on the list and of the eight ranked higher, only two are not from California or Texas.

Apart for some attention it draws back to the high school and community, Blade doesn’t think much of the poll.

“I don’t know what they base that on or who’s voting on that,” she said. “I don’t know that anybody one person who votes on that has seen us play. It’s great recognition for our program, but at the end of it, it doesn’t mean much.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t believe this year’s edition of the softball Tigers won’t be special.

Through Thursday’s win over Belleville East, 10 Edwardsville players were hitting .500 or better. This includes senior second baseman Jordan Corby whose .706 average includes 12 hits and seven RBIs in 17 at-bats and outfielder Rachel Anderson, who pairs a .625 average with a team-high two home runs at 14 runs batted in.

Kallen Loveless, who hit seven home runs last season and is hitting .600 this year, joins Allison Loehr as the team’s primary pitching options. They’ve each allowed just one earned run so far this season.

With more than 25 games left before the start of the playoffs, including most of their Southwestern Conference games, Blade favors a laser focus on the task at hand as opposed to a push toward the top of the polls.

She suggests that early success and the added attention has been a distraction.

“We have a ton of experience, but we have a tendency right now to be complacent,” Blade said. “When everybody is telling you you’re good, that doesn’t mean a whole lot. You still need to dig in and grind and work through. You’re not going to get wins just because somebody tells you you’re pretty good.

“Absolutely we had a good team last year. But it ended sooner than we wanted it to and it doesn’t mean we’re going to get the same opportunities this year. It’s hard to tell kids that when you’re undefeated. So we have to do our jobs, stay within ourselves and try to ignore everything that everybody out there is telling us.”

That’s been Blade’s approach to coaching for 20 years, and even as a standout basketball player at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she’s been inducted to the Cougars’ Hall of Fame. With focus and work, the wins take care of themselves.

And with wins come milestones. Achieving milestones brings rewards. But the rewards belong to the players, not to the head coach, she says.

“We tell the kids all the time we’ve been to a state tournament. We’re not pushing them to get us back to a state tournament as a coaching staff,” she said. “We’re pushing them to give them the opportunity to have that experience with their teammates. There is nothing better than when you get to do that, and succeed.

“The memories the kids have over the years. I take a tremendous amount of pride in the time we’ve put in, but we’ve had tremendous girls and great families and great community support in both programs I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of.”

This story was originally published April 11, 2015 at 7:47 PM with the headline "Edwardsville coach could reach more milestones with nationally ranked team."