Summer Bartek may have missed her entire junior season due to a foot injury, but she more than made up for lost time as a senior.
Bartek hit. 398, clubbed three homers, drove in 38 runs and made her comeback season complete Friday by signing a scholarship with Newberry (S.C.) College.
The Dragons’ offensive MVP and all-region second-teamer said Newberry felt like a natural fit to continue her career.
“(Newberry) Coach (Joe) Elston is fabulous,” Bartek said at a signing ceremony at the Jefferson High School media center. “We met over the summer at (Jefferson’s) team camp over in Anderson. He impressed me so much as a coach and he just kept in contact with me, and I’m very thankful that he saw enough potential in me and my athletic ability to come play there.”
Former Jefferson softball coach Brad Puckett, who resigned in October at the conclusion of a 22-9 campaign, said it was clear that Bartek wanted to make her final year count after losing her junior season.
“Sometimes when you have something taken away from you, and you miss it so bad, it gives you even more of a passion,” Puckett said. “And she had that passion this year.”
Puckett said Bartek — starting way back in the summer — led by example in the weight room and on the field as Jefferson improved by 13 victories over the 2009 season. That quality “goes above and beyond her stats,” Puckett said.
Bartek’s bounce-back season included an appearance in the Georgia Dugout Club all-star game this past November. Puckett said Bartek put together an amazing year.
“She showed the girls that, ‘hey, I got knocked down last year but I didn’t stay down,” he said. “She showed what it was like to keep climbing that ladder, and it was unbelievable the kind of season she had. I mean, she was so valuable to us. We wouldn’t have been 22-9 without her.”
Newberry, which went 30-13 last year with a third-place finish in the South Atlantic Conference, is located near Columbia, S.C. An official visit to the campus cemented Bartek’s decision to sign with the school. She said the softball program “felt like home.”
“And walking on campus, it was just like ‘I can be happy here for the next four years,’” Bartek said.
But she won’t forget Jefferson, which she said opened the door for her to play at the next level.
“I really could not have done it without my past teammates as role models,” she said. “I could not have asked for a better coach and a better team and coaching staff.”
