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Prep Confidential

Jackson's 5 Part IV

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:23 AM

Each week staff writer Marcus Jackson will pose five questions to an area prep athlete. This week's guest is Tuscola senior softball player Kaela Kroenung.

MJ: I heard you were named prom queen this year. Was that honor something you expected?

KK: Not really. It was kind of like cool though because my class and the junior class voted on it so I guess I'm liked, so I guess that's pretty cool.

MJ: Did you teammates ever think about making you play a game or practice with you tiara on?

KK: No. I guess right after it and at practice the day after, they were teasing me about it a lot. I don't think it's that big a deal. They were like, 'Look out, the queen's coming through' and stuff like that.

MJ: Did they make you do the queen wave when they saw you?

KK: No. I'm pretty sure Mariah (Brooking) probably did that, but I never did it.

MJ: What was it like seeing that (home run) ball off the bat of Tri-Valley's Hannah Sanidas go over the fence Monday?

KK: My first thought was (darnit). I don't know if you can print that, but that's exactly what I thought. We played six innings without errors, both teams, so whenever you see that you're kind of like, 'Wow'. It's kind of like a slap in the face.

MJ: Are you going to play sports in college at all?

KK: I haven't really decided yet. I plan on going to Illinois state and I was kind of thinking about trying out for their team, but I don't know yet. I might change my mind.

MJ: I know it's pretty upsetting getting as far as you did and losing, but does it make you feel any better knowing the baseball team is still alive?

KK: I don't know. It was kind of cool whenever we won regionals, they won regionals that afternoon. It's kind of bitter sweet I guess. We wish that was us, but it's still awesome that they made it. I mean they made school history so you've got to be proud of them.

MJ: Was there ever any competition or trash talk between you and the baseball guys about who would go further?

KK: It was like trash talk, it was like, 'Yeah, we just won regionals, no it's your turn.' We were challenging them, I guess. It was more of just a challenge between our two teams and the boys' track team to see how many trophies we could bring home.

MJ: Are you going to the baseball games this weekend?

KK: I think we're going to try, but I think the boys play in the morning and I'm not really a morning person, so we'll see how that works out.

MJ: You can't wake up a little bit early to support your guys?

KK: I don't know, I might go Saturday. Hopefully they have an afternoon game. We were talking about it yesterday, that we might go up there and get a hotel or something so that we could all stay and watch.

MJ: If you guys do make it up there, do you have anything special planned, like painting your faces, or bodies?

KK: Tuscola is notorious for that kind of thing, so we probably will.

MJ: You played varsity basketball for three years, but not your senior year. Was there any reason in particular that you chose not to play?

KK: I don't know. I wasn't really into it over the summer. Usually in the summers, I love basketball and play all the time, but last summer I didn't really get into it much. I didn't work out as much as I should have and I just didn't miss playing. So I decided to take the winter off and just do whatever.

MJ: Did you kind of wish you were out there while the basketball team was making its run to the super-sectional?

KK: Not really. I was proud to watch them. People were asking me if it bothered me to watch them do so well. If anything it made me proud of them to see them do that well. I know that team is so young and they're going to do well next year so that will be kind of cool.

MJ: What do you like to do outside of sports?

KK: Hang out with friends, listen to music. I make pottery. I make hemp jewelery, too. I took a class at the beginning of this year as kind of like a blow-off class and it turned out to be one of my favorite ones. I made a ton of stuff just on the wheel. I give a lot of it to my mom.