By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
From the day she was born, Jennifer Jorgensen has been in a hurry.
“She skipped crawling and went right to walking at six months old,” her father-coach, Mike, told MaxPreps. “At nine months, we have pictures of her walking around the state tournament in diapers.”
It shouldn’t be a great surprise, therefore, that she is gifted with quickness and was able to convert that talent into becoming the greatest base stealer in the history of high school softball. In her final four varsity years at Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside, Iowa), Jorgensen stole 320 bases to obliterate the standard of 246 by Kristy Roberts of Danville, Ala., which was fashioned from 2002-05.
Though eighth grade statistics do not count in official national records, she finished her five-year varsity career with 380 steals. The most mind-boggling statistic, however, is that she was thrown out a mere six times! She never was thrown out a single time as a sophomore and senior.
“Everybody knew I was going to steal,” Jorgensen conceded, “so I always was ready for a pitch-out. The pitcher and catcher both have to be accurate. A lot of times they got so flustered that they didn’t even throw it.”
She consistently goes from a standing start at home plate to first base in a swift 2.7 seconds. Anything under 3.0 seconds is considered good.
“I’m really quick at everything – not just racing and games,” Jorgensen exclaimed. “I always wanted to rush and be done (first) in the classroom.” Despite the constant hurriedness, the multi-talented teen finished first there, too, compiling a 3.93 GPA to finish No. 1 in her class academically.
The 5-foot-11 speedster, now a freshman on a basketball scholarship at the University of the Pacific, was named the Offensive Player of the Year in Iowa even though she played for a small Class 1A school – her senior class had only 48 students. As a senior she batted a lofty .596 with 68 runs and a perfect 71-of-71 in stolen bases. In addition, she had a 13-4 pitching record (the team was 33-8) with 127 strikeouts and a 1.36 ERA.
Jorgensen also left her mark nationally in two other categories. She finished No. 2 all-time with 275 runs scored – just four short of the record – and No. 3 all-time with 351 hits, just 24 short of that record.
During her career she batted a superb .574. Though she did slam 29 triples and 23 doubles, she was not a power hitter, having only one home run. That one came during her sophomore year and – of course – it was a hard-hit grounder that rolled to the fence in right center field. “The year I had nine triples (as a junior), I felt really big and powerful,” she laughed.
Those impressive statistics also can be traced to her speed. Mike Jorgensen estimates that “50 percent of her hits were drag bunts.” Jennifer explained, “I really worked every year on (bunting down) the first base line. Every time I got in the cage, I worked on it.”
Her speed was a tremendous weapon for the Eagles. There was great drama whenever she came to the plate and even more drama when she reached base. Her very presence constantly put pressure on opponents, causing them to try many trick defenses. On one occasion, an opponent brought its entire outfield to the infield, so basically nine players were stacked to keep her off the base paths.
Her first response? “I laughed,” she recalled. Then she belted a triple to the fence in left center field, finishing the day 3-for-4 with a walk.
Despite her awesome softball career, Jorgensen actually starred in five sports (softball is a summer sport) and has to be ranked as one of the greatest all-around athletes in Iowa history.
She always had an interest in sports. She would ride the bus with her dad’s teams as a youngster and watch Cincinnati Reds games on TV with him. “We’d analyze games,” Mike noted. “From early on, she had a good insight into strategy. She also was very involved in gymnastics and won a national tumbling contest in Kansas City (at age 12).”
Jennifer began playing T-ball at the YMCA and switched to fast-pitch softball at age seven where she caught for her sister, Angela, a pitcher who was three years older. In later years Jennifer became a standout shortstop and pitcher. Of course, she long has been the leadoff hitter in the batting order.
“Her quickness was evident right away,” Mike Jorgensen recalled. “She was right-handed at the time. When she was eight, we switched her to batting left-handed. She was a good hitter right off the bat (no pun intended).”
Jennifer points out that the switch was due in part to having problems in the batting cage hitting right-handed. “I was really struggling,” she said, “so I did one bucket left-handed. I was just more comfortable hitting left-handed.” She continued to throw right-handed, though, and as a seventh grade pitcher she once struck out 19 of 21 batters, just missing a perfect game due to a dropped third strike.
During middle school, she fell in love with track and thought that might be her ticket to college. At age 10 her father had taught her how to long jump and she immediately won the prestigious Iowa State Games in the 12-and-under division. She later won the Iowa state championship and the prestigious Drake Relays long jump titles as a sophomore, junior and senior and holds the state record of 18-7. She also placed third in the state 100- and 200-meter dashes this spring.
Along the way, Mike Jorgensen “took one for the team,” so to speak. The school was raising money for a new eight-lane track and one of the premier events matched him against eighth-grader Jennifer in a 100-meter race. He and his wife (Virginia) both ran track at Drake University, but he was 43 at this time. At 75 yards Mike tore his Achilles and had to go through a long 18 months of rehab due to an original misdiagnosis.
“He would say he was ahead,” Jennifer admits, “but I was ahead. We have pictures.”
One of the reasons she didn’t pursue college track, Jorgensen revealed, “was that I realized I didn’t like it (that well). I didn’t like all the running. I didn’t like distance running in practice.” (She did run cross country for two years, but did it so the Eagles could have enough members to field a full team.)
Though she also played volleyball (MVP for three years) and ran cross country (No. 1 or 2 runner for two years), basketball became her ultimate ticket to college. And why not? She had a sensational basketball career. She was a tremendous scorer and rebounder and also brought the ball up against pressing defenses. She has an excellent vertical jump and consistently out-leaped girls 6-3 and 6-4. The payoff was being named Iowa’s Miss Basketball as a senior.
“Whoever thought I’d get that, coming from a small school,” Jorgensen said humbly.
Similar to softball, she also left her mark in Iowa basketball record books. In five years, she scored 2,708 points for No. 2 in state history. The record is 2,756 by Deb Remmerde of Rock Valley. “A lot of games I didn’t play in the fourth quarter,” Jorgensen pointed out. “We didn’t want to beat up on teams. Dad, why didn’t you leave me in a little longer?” she mused about missing the state record by a mere 48 points.
During her career she averaged an impressive 27.08 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists. As a senior she averaged 30.9 points, 13.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists. As a junior she averaged 30.9 points, 13.7 rebounds and set a state junior record with 804 points. She twice exploded for 48-point games as a junior.
“We saw all kinds of strategy to shut her down,” Mike Jorgensen pointed out. “What people couldn’t adapt to was the quickness.”
Along with her well-earned titles of Miss Basketball and Queen of Thieves, Jorgensen also could be called the Iron Lady. She only missed one athletic event in her career, attending a funeral of a close family friend when she was in seventh grade.
“I’ve had sprained ankles a lot,” she admits, “but I never went to a doctor because I didn’t want him to tell me not to play.”
In addition to five sports, Jorgensen had one of the leads in the school musical. She also was active in the National Honor Society, speech and business clubs and mentored elementary students.
When Jennifer was in junior high, the family was encouraged by college basketball coaches to move to a larger school for stronger competition. However, her older sister was just starting high school and the family elected to stay put. The decision enabled her to play five sports and to start on the varsity at a very young age. The cream still rose to the top because of her superb athletic ability.
Jorgensen – and her strong senior class – also helped establish a great legacy at a school whose girls had little or no previous winning tradition. For example, when she was a freshman, the Eagles’ softball team became the school’s first to reach the state finals in any girls sport. In her five-year tenure, the Eagles compiled a 183-40 record with finishes of third, fifth and sixth in the Class A state tournament. The school record had been seven wins in a year before Mike Jorgensen took over the coaching reins 10 years ago.
In basketball, the Jorgensens helped the Eagles reach the state finals for the first time ever during Jennifer’s sophomore year and they matched that feat during her senior year. The four-year record was 71-29. Five years ago the varsity record was a woeful 1-21.
Mike Jorgensen couldn’t be prouder of his daughter’s amazing accomplishments. He noted, “It’s a dream to get to ever coach that caliber of an athlete. The fact that she’s your daughter, it’s hard not to let that pride show through.”
Jennifer is majoring in sports management at Pacific and for the first time in her life will be concentrating on just one sport. Even at the collegiate level, however, she’s already far ahead of the game, because while she was achieving No. 1 academic ranking in high school, she also was earning 46 college credits! The sky obviously is the only limit for this former Eagle who’s not about to slow down in the future.
