Photo: Monmouth Athletics
Who is she? Jill Freese, a former catcher and slugger for the Monmouth Hawks.
What is she known for? Freese was the Hawks’ starting catcher for the majority of her career. She enjoyed a breakout season in her senior year of 2016, hitting a career-best .315 with fourteen home runs, tripling her career total of longballs.
Here’s something interesting… Jill grew up on a dairy farm, performing a variety of tasks around the family-owned homestead. Additionally, in high school, she earned letters not just in softball, but also in basketball and field hockey.
Quotable quote: “The advice that I would give the next generation of athletes would be the same advice that I once got from one of my coaches. He always said, “the game will tell”, and this sticks with me still today. It simply means that the game will tell your coaches, teammates, family, fans, and even yourself how hard you worked. It will show the extra hours you put in in order to be successful and it will tell you if you need to work harder for the next game. I think this is the most helpful advice anyone could get because it applies to more than just the game.”
What’s she up to now? After graduating from Monmouth in 2016, Freese accepted an assistant coaching position at Saint Peter’s. Staying in the same conference where she played, Freese helped lead the Peacocks to a 6-34 record during the 2017 season, a five-win improvement over the previous year.
Keep up: You can follow Freese and the Peacocks softball program on Twitter @PeacockSoftball.
