ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Ali Williams

The best player, at the most premium position, is pretty hard to miss.

Especially when she’s standing right smack in the middle of the field.

Glacier stalwart Ali Williams, a singularly dominant force in softball, put an emphatic exclamation mark on an exemplary career and is the Daily Inter Lake’s 2016 Athlete of the Year.

Williams’ senior season was a riveting close to a masterpiece of a career that would have been historic enough had it ended after leading the Wolfpack to a state championship in her junior season.

What set Williams apart, though, was her relentless need to get better, and while Glacier fell one game short of a second straight title as a senior, Williams’ last season was one for the ages.

“I was always impressed with her hunger and drive to improve,” Glacier softball coach Andy Fors said. “You see a lot of high school athletes that excel early in their career and don’t always take those steps forward. Ali was determined and focused and did a phenomenal job of making sure she took the steps during the offseason to continue to improve.”

The payoff for that hard work came this spring, when Williams went 21-6 with a microscopic 0.65 ERA. In 182 innings she allowed only 74 hits, walked just 31 batters and struck out 347 opposing hitters, an average of more than 13 per seven-inning game. Williams led Class AA in almost every pitching category and had more than twice as many strikeouts as anyone else.

She also threw the first two perfect games in school history, highlighted by a ridiculous 20-strikeout perfect game against Butte on May 10 in which she needed just 77 pitches and did not reach a single three-ball count.

Ever the competitor, Williams pointed not to her perfect games but to the battles with state power Missoula Big Sky as her favorite moments.

“Whenever we played [Big Sky], we got super up for the game and I got super pumped,” Williams said. “When we played them this year in Kalispell and we beat them, that might have been my favorite game from the whole season. Everybody was super on, we were hitting and that’s my favorite.

“When we’re on, being good teammates, that’s my favorite.”

Williams had 17 strikeouts and a pair of hits in the April 12 7-1 win over the then-undefeated Eagles.

She was a force at the plate in her career, too, and true to form had her best season as a senior, hitting .461 with 11 home runs. Batting in the leadoff spot, Williams walked 36 times and struck out only eight.

Next year, the right-hander will compete at Carroll College, and her coach there expects her to contribute with her bat and her arm.

“She’s a great pitcher but she’s probably a better hitter,” Saints coach Aaron Jackson said. “On the recruiting trail, we looked more at her offensive production and what she does at the plate more than in the circle. She has great power and the ability to be an elite hitter.”

Williams will need to make a mechanical adjustment as a pitcher to comply with college rules that differ from those in high school. Jackson, Fors and Williams, however, do not expect the change to be too much for the hard-working hurler to overcome.

“I know there were some knocks on her and some technique things and if she’s going to be able to throw as hard as she does when she gets to the college level,” Jackson said. “Fortunately for us, we had her throw the way she needs to throw and she’s already developed the way we need to. I think that’s maybe a little bit why people were staying off her but fortunately for us we were able to see past those things.”

Away from the diamond, Williams admits she is more of a lead by example captain than an emotional leader, but the examples she set are the stuff of legend. She is a workout fiend, a CrossFit enthusiast and an example, Fors believes, that will infect future classes of Glacier softball players.

“My hope is that Ali has helped our program raise the bar and I hope what our athletes have seen is the level of commitment that she has to Wolfpack softball and Glacier High School,” he said.

“The one thing I would hope to see is that level of commitment to improving.”

Williams already sees some of that rubbing off.

“I’ve been told by my friends that they want to be a captain like [I was] and show determination and hard work,” she said. “I would work out three to four days and I’m leaving that legacy of hard work can finally get you there. It’s a really good way to end your high school career.

“I think everyone will remember that determination and focus on the sport can get you very far.”