More Than Softball, It Was About Life Lessons

By Editor | September 25, 2024

By Marlana Smith

Angie Resa was formally inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame for her 25 years of success coaching softball. She accumulated a record of 340-190.

Resa got a call from a strange number, and wasn’t going to answer, but then decided to.

“He told me his name and said, ‘You are going to be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Congratulations on all your success at North Shelby.’ I was kind of like, ‘Are you sure it is me?’” Resa expressed.

When she looked at the article after it was released, she saw Chase Daniel, who was a Mizzou quarterback and is now in the NFL, was also inducted.

“I was like ‘I am going in the Hall of Fame with Chase Daniel, how awesome is that,’” Resa said.

Recognition was never anything Resa wanted. She would rather the athlete get recognized.

“It is kind of nice to say, ‘Hey this lady did something up here in northeast Missouri. This is kind of a big deal,’” Resa said.

Basketball was what Resa really enjoyed playing the most and softball was something she did to keep in shape for basketball. They didn’t have softball at North Shelby until her sophomore year, which was the fall of 1979. The first softball season they wore blue jeans and track jerseys.

In 1987, she started teaching math at South Shelby. She and Paula Glover had an opportunity to coach softball. Neither one wanted to be a head coach, so they were co-head coaches for two years before Resa jumped the river and went back to North Shelby.

Resa coached junior high basketball for three years, then became the softball head coach where she led the Lady Raiders to six district titles and two state titles.

When she first started coaching softball, she coached both junior high and varsity.

Resa swears this is why the championship teams were as good as they were.

“We did junior high for an hour then the varsity would come in and the assistant would go with them. Then when middle school was finished up, I would go to varsity. So, there was a little bit of an overlap,” explained Resa. “Those junior high kids had me for six years.”

Holly (Lindsey) Klusmeyer played for Resa from 1995-1999, but she would also get the experience to coach alongside her in the Missouri/Illinois game along with her sister, Kayla.

“Coaching with her was much different than playing for her,” Klusmeyer said.

“For one, I wasn’t scared of her and two, she had mellowed a lot since I had played for her as a teenager. I learned a lot from her about softball while coaching which in turn helped me advise our players what to do and now my own children.”

In 1998, North Shelby earned a state runner-up. Then in 2000, the Lady Raiders won the state title defeating Worth County, 3-1.

Resa remembers the key turning point of the game which was when Amber (Browning) Prange was on third base.

“The catcher wasn’t really checking her every time she threw back to the pitcher. We did it all season to other teams. I didn’t tell her to steal, but we both knew if I gave her a head nod that she was supposed to go,” Resa said. “The next pitch, she stole home. That was kind of the nail in the coffin for Worth County.”

Kelly (Rich) George who played in the 2000 state championship game, said the words she would use to describe Coach Resa are smart, tough and fair.

“She coached the game very smart as she was always thinking ahead, and she knew what was coming next. She was tough in the sense that she didn’t give handouts. You had to earn your playing time and work hard to keep it. She was tough, but she was also fun to play for,” Kelly expressed.

“She taught us to take pride in ourselves and showed us what we could accomplish with hard work and determination. I also remember Coach Resa taught us to never say the word ‘can’t’. This still sticks with me to this day.”

That year, North Shelby finished 27-2.

The Lady Raiders lost to Salisbury at the Marion County Tournament Championship, 2-1, on a Saturday night and then played them in a regular season game on Monday night and beat them, 1-0.

The other loss was to Putnam County which was a 1-0 loss.

Aside from her Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Induction, Resa was also inducted into the Missouri High School Fastpitch Coaches Association in 2007 as she was an original founding member of the Association. Resa was the secretary-treasurer for 16 years.

When North Shelby won the state title in 2000 everybody sent their paperwork to a man in Kansas City. He said Classes 1 and 2 didn’t have enough good athletes to have their own state team.

“He put both together to make one state team. I had a lot of good kids on that team that didn’t make All-State that year,” Resa said.

Troy Patterson, of Monroe City, Kelly O’Neal from Westran, Resa and coaches from Kansas City and St. Louis met at Columbia and said, “Enough is enough.”

They made their own coaches association and came up with bylaws and set dues.

“All we wanted was to have a coaches association where we could have an All State Team, offer some scholarships and have our own clinic. Since then, things have been successful,” said Resa.

Resa led North Shelby to another state title in 2004.

The Lady Raiders beat Silex, 2-1 and ended the season 20-8. Amber Browning was her assistant that year.

“I remember we were winning 1-0. They had a runner at third base and a ball scooted by my catcher at the time, Rachael (Smith) Rife a little bit and the runner on third broke thinking it was going to be a pass ball,” Resa explained. “Rachael realized how far she was off the base and snapped through that bunt ball and threw back down and bam got her out.”

When North Shelby went to state in 2004, they had to beat Bevier in the sectional game.

They went 19 innings and Angie’s daughter, Kelsey Hinshaw, pitched them all. It was tied 3-3 after seven innings and NS ended up scoring three runs and beating them 6-3.

Valerie (Stelle) Fallert graduated and then Gina (Eckler) Pollard pitched for a couple of years then Kelsey walked right in.

“We kind of split our kids. Derek always ended up going with John to bird dog field trial events and Kelsey was always with me to a ball tournament. She kind of grew up on the softball field,” Resa said.

A couple of Resa’s friends were working with the varsity girls and Kelsey was out there. They started working with her and she just picked it up.

Resa recalls playing Putnam County. Out of the 21 outs in the game, Kelsey had 17 strike outs, and they still lost that game.

“It isn’t that we didn’t play defense on the ones we had. We didn’t have anyone that could swing a bat very good that year,” Resa explained.

Resa was a math teacher at North Shelby for 20 years, then finished her coaching career at South Shelby. She officially retired last May but continues to sub when needed.

Resa led South Shelby to the school’s first softball district title in 2015. They defeated Highland 4-2.

The following game SS lost to Centralia, who went on to win the state title that year.

Rachelle (Chinn) Thiel was part of the team who won the first district championship at South Shelby. Rachelle said Coach Resa was truly the best coach.

“Not only was she so knowledgeable when it came to softball and coaching us, she was also always teaching us life lessons along the way,” Chinn said.

“She taught us that being early was on time and being on time was late. There’s no I in team and teamwork makes the dream work. She taught us how to take responsibility and hold our heads high. She always wanted us to do our best, on and off the field.

“She held us to a high standard, on and off the field. She was far more than just a coach to us all and I know everyone who ever played with her walked away with lessons that carried us far past our time playing for her.”

As a coach, Resa expected her players to be the best that they could possibly be.

The mental aspect of the game is what Resa has always loved and always preached.

“In life you are going to face some tough mental situations. When you get in that batter’s box it isn’t just you. You are facing the pitcher and nine other people. You must get used to that I can take on that situation or any situation,” Resa expressed.

“The other part is you must learn to deal with failure. A good batting average is .300. That means you fail seven out of 10 times. The other part is teamwork. You might strike out 17 batters. But you might still lose. You can’t blame anyone on your team for doing anything wrong necessarily. It can’t be just you. You have to rely on everybody.”

She continued to be a volunteer coach at North Shelby for two years, but now only assists her daughter on a traveling team.

When asked what Resa would tell a young girl who wanted to play softball she said, “I would tell her, that this is great sport, and it is a lot of fun. Make sure you find a coach that loves it and throws a passion in because that is important for those leaders to demonstrate that.”

“To me it is all about finding something you love, and I love softball. I love the mental part of it. Love it, but love it for the right reason. Love it because you love it, not because Mom and Dad want you to. It must be internal. I think it is a great life skill sport to learn.”

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