Pirates made history with Deiter on team

As the head baseball coach at Mendon-Union High School in the late-1980s, Martin Miller was all too familiar with headaches that came along with coaching at a school which had a minuscule pool of students from which to fill his roster.

"The class size at Mendon was a significant issue as I recall. We needed to have enough players to field a team with extras to fill in if a player was injured or sick, which meant there were a few guys with limited or no experience playing competitive baseball," Miller, now the superintendent of Antwerp Local Schools, pointed out. "I remember at least one game when we finished with eight players, which made for a sizable gap in the outfield. I understood our limitations and, for the most part, tried to provide an enjoyable experience while strengthening our skills. We had a couple decent players who would have loved to be on a 'winning/competitive team,'but that wasn't reality for us, especially when we had two state champions out of our conference with Parkway and Coldwater."

While Miller was stringing together his lineup in the spring of 1989, some interesting developments were underway over on the school's softball diamond, as it was announced the spring season would be cancelled, primarily due to lack of numbers. For senior Jennifer Kill, this left her with a decision that would eventually alter the landscape of local baseball for the next couple of months.

"Not having a softball team our senior year came as a complete surprise to all of us," Kill, now Jennifer Deiter, recalled. "We only had nine girls, but we started practicing for a couple of weeks before being told they were eliminating the sport. I had two choices at that point: transfer to another school to play or see about playing on the baseball team. I was a Mendon Pirate my entire life and that was never going to change, so I spoke with the baseball coach about playing for him."

The decision was a no-brainer for Miller.

"I knew Jennifer was very athletic and competitive with a great work ethic. She exemplified everything a coach wanted from an athlete/baseball player, and the fact that she was a female raised no concerns with me," he explained. "Really, the only thing I thought would be an issue was her bat speed. Her hand-eye coordination and foot speed was excellent, while her ability to field and throw the ball was also very good. Additionally, she was highly-respected by her teammates both as a person and as competitor."

When Deiter, who was a standout basketball player for the Pirates as well, dug in at second base in the season-opener against Spencerville, she became the first and only female in MAC history to start a baseball game.

"I went from being a catcher in softball to a second basemen in baseball, which was a little bit of an adjustment," Deiter chuckled. "There was a line drive right at me early in the first game. I fielded it cleanly and got the out, which was a huge relief. It helped me to relax and showed people that I could do it. I can't remember my first at-bat, but I remember getting a lot of walks throughout the year (11) because I think being a girl sometimes got into the pitcher's heads a little bit."

Although the two sports are conceptually identical, Deiter knew there were going to be quite a few aspects to get used to as the season wore on.

"The biggest difference for me was getting used to the way the ball comes in from the pitcher and, of course, adjusting my swing against the overhand pitch compared to underhand," she commented. "Another big difference was that in softball all of the girls in the dugout were like cheerleaders with different chants and cheers and a lot of spirit. I figured out pretty quick that it definitely wasn't that way in the baseball dugout!"

Despite the personal adjustments against plenty of dominating competition, Deiter certainly made her mark, earning loads of respect along the way and eventually picking up honorable mention All-MAC honors at the end of the season.

"I don't recall any negative feedback from our team's perspective. The boys on the team dealt with the reality that Jennifer was a good ball player and she was just one of us," Miller assured. "Our competitors recognized it as well. I recall several coaches commenting that they appreciated seeing her play the game and exhibiting skills in a sport which was traditionally male-dominant. She was always up to a challenge and wanted to prove to herself she could do it and she did just that! She had a great understanding of the game, which helped her with leadership decisions on the field. She knew all the terminology, strategies, and anticipated situations similar to senior-level baseball players."

Today Deiter and her family live in Findlay, where she works at Nissin Brake Ohio Inc. as part of the senior management personnel team, a division where she is the only female.

"I guess I just never looked at being a female as an obstacle at all in sports or in the work force," she remarked. "Thinking about my senior year, I don't think of it as anything really ground-breaking – I was just a competitor no matter what the sport was and I didn't want to end my high school career with no sports to play," Deiter commented. "I hope others looked at my experience with the thought of you can accomplish anything as long as you put your mind to it and that girls can many times do things just as well as the boys!"