Lena Brottman’s dominant career results in Female Athlete of the Year Award

The softball pitcher and volleyball player earned Fremd's highest athletic recognition.

Published By John Juettner on 6/07/2010

Lena Brottman holds most every Fremd softball pitching record.
Story and Photo By: John Juettner
      The Fremd softball program has had an impressive run of great pitchers.
      From 1992 to 1995 it was Angie Jacobs. From 1996 to 1998 it was Courtney Walker. Ellen Stoddard followed in 1999 and was there until 2002. Then Stacey Gillette was the star from 2003 to 2006.
      Those four names are found in the Top 5 of nearly every Fremd career pitching record.
      But in just about every category they trail Lena Brottman, who Fremd coach Jim Weaver calls the best pitcher the program has ever had.
      Here’s an example of just how dominant Brottman is.
      A high school softball game lasts 7 innings, meaning you need to record 21 outs to end the game.
      Fremd has had three pitchers in its history strike out 14 or more batters in a game. Stoddard did it once in 2000, setting the school record at the time with 14 strikeouts. In 2006, Gillette broke that record by striking out 15.
      Brottman broke the school record in 2008 by striking out 18 opposing batters. Including that performance she has struck out 14 or more hitters nine times in her career. Brottman has also recorded 13 strikeouts in a game five times.
      She is the career wins leader with 81. She holds the career strikeout record with 986, and the shutout mark with 45. She has the most wins in a single-season this year with 28, and the three best strikeout seasons in Fremd history.
      And all these numbers can grow as the Vikings are still alive in the IHSA Class 4A girls’ softball playoffs.
      Adding to, and in a large part because of, all those records, Brottman, who arrived in 2007, has been named Fremd’s Female Athlete of the Year.
      “It is a total honor,” Brottman said. “There are so many deserving athletes in our class, and to be chosen as the top female athlete is such an honor.”
      Brottman smiled when told Weaver called her the best pitcher in Fremd history, but she deferred a lot of the credit, something Weaver said she would do.
      “That’s quite an honor,” Brottman said. “I just try my best, and have fun. I wouldn’t be able to do anything I do out on the mound without my teammates behind me. They are making plays, and we have an awesome offensive lineup. I can’t do my job without my teammates. It’s all on them.”
      Brottman is having her best season this year, which many would expect from a high school senior who has been on the varsity since her freshman year, and came into the season already with the two best single-season strikeout totals in school history.
      But this year the pitchers’ mound was moved from 40-feet to 43-feet, and it hasn’t fazed Brottman at all.
      “She worked even harder in the off-season,” Weaver said. “She’s an all-state player as a junior and a sophomore. It would have been easy for her to relax, and she did the opposite.”
      Brottman, who is headed to Emory University in Atlanta in the fall where she will continue playing softball, said in the summer prior to this season she pitched from 43-feet, which helped start the adjustment period.
      “I try not to focus on the distance,” Brottman said. “I just focus on my game, pitch my pitches and everything, and not let that affect me.”
      The Fremd Male and Female Athletes of the Year are chosen from a vote by all the head coaches, and Fremd athletic director Augie Fontanetta said he couldn’t be happier with who the coaches selected in terms of being great teammates and great student-athletes.
      “The one thing about Lena is that she has maturity beyond her years,” Fontanetta said. “She always keeps it together. Even when she’s struggling, you don’t really see it from her, and she perseveres very well.”
      Brottman also played on the girls’ volleyball team in the fall, but it’s standing inside the chalked circle of a pitching mound on a softball field where her athletic skill really shines.
      “She deserves every accolade she’s ever gotten,” Weaver said. “I’m proud of her.”