As good as it gets: Daly's
HS career winding down

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Sept. 10, 2020

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --- KRCG Sports Director Rod Smith has been doing this gig for 35 years.

He's seen more games than an old arcade.

He's seen more players than a Vegas casino.

So when he says Jefferson City senior Kara Daly is the best softball player to ever come out of Central Missouri, that Daly is the best he's ever seen, his words have weight.

It's easy to agree with him.

Veteran umpire Rick Petty --- perhaps the best umpire this area's ever seen --- has seen hundreds more softball games than Smith from start to finish.

When asked the same question, I got the same answer.

Kara Daly.

Two guys who know ... and here's another one who knows even more than those two.

If the game involves bats and balls, nobody knows more than Chris Wyrick,

"She just does everything well," said Wyrick, the Helias softball and baseball head coach. 'She's a good athlete, she's got good hands, she moves well, outstanding in the field and obviously, she's a great hitter.

"When you can play the game at that level and still enjoy it, that makes you a special player."

Wyrick, who's been involved in softball for 15 years, continued.

"She's the best softball player (non-pitcher, pitchers have their own category) I've seen in the last 15 years," he said. "As far as having an influence on the game --- even when she's not in the batter's box and she's three batters away --- she still has an influence on the game.

"She's the real deal. I've always said a Division I talent stands out, and she stands out."

Through five games this season, Daly --- a four-year starter who will play her college softball at Mizzou --- is batting .563 with a video-game slugging percentage of 1.375, with two home runs and six RBI

Her career totals entering this season were staggering --- .446 avg., .972 slg., 30 homers, 80 RBI and 105 runs scored.

Zac Miller is still working on the school record book, trying to figure out how many school records she already owns or will set this season.

Make it easy, just call it the Kara Daly Record Book.

"She's going to have a lot of them," said Miller, the Lady jays head coach. "She has the size (6-foot), she's fast as all get-out, great arm ... she's the total package. Some of the plays she makes, you just sit back and chuckle, 'Did she really just do that?'

"And she's almost like having another coach. In practice, she brings in the younger girls and helps them out, she leads by example. When she speaks, they listen."

As great as she is in softball, Daly, the daughter of Joe and Kristin, is even better in life.

"I had her in middle school, so I've had the opportunity to be around her the last seven years," Miller said. "She's an even better person than she is a ball player --- and you can see what kind of player she is.

"She's just a great kid."

Time flies when you've having fun and wow, did these past three-plus years zip by in a blink.

"It's gone so quickly, it seems like last year I was just a freshman, scared playing my first game," Daly said. "Now, it's crazy to believe I'm a senior.

"I'm really realizing that I've got to savor every moment, every practice, every game."

Daly started playing T-ball at age four or five and sometimes in life, things click

"I remember just loving it," she said. "I remember the feeling I had going to practice that this is something I wanted to do later in life. It's always been my passion."

Rest assured, she wasn't one of those 5 year-olds out in the field playing in the dirt or chasing butterflies.

"I was hardcore," she said with a smile. "My mom told me every time I went out there to swing for the fences and make every play I could."

Playing for the Lady Jays is just a tip of the softball experience iceberg for Daly. Counting her summer games, she says she's played well over 1,000 games in the last 10 years.

And it never gets old, any of it --- playing, practicing or conditioning

"I love it, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," said Daly, who's also a basketball standout for the Lady Jays. "Working out and playing softball is kind of my way to escape.

"Everything else, everything that's bothering me, just goes away."

Wyrick pitched to Daly in all three of her at-bats in Helias' 4-0 win over the Lady Jays on Wednesday. Intentional walks are often the rule, not the exception, when she comes to the plate.

"When you're up one or two runs, she's in play (for an intentional walk), but if you're up three or four, that changes things," Wyrick said. "We wanted to go at her, make good pitches and see if we could get her out.

"She crushed some balls but she hit them foul, and they have foul poles for a reason."

Daly went 1-for-3 on Wednesday, flying out to the fence, fouling out, and lining a single to right.

"She hit a curve that was about that was about two balls off the plate and she hit it to right field for a base hit," Wyrick said. "We'll take that all day long.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'll be glad to see her go. I'm looking forward to watching her play at Mizzou instead of playing against us."

We get it. After all, it's not easy to deal with the best.

"She never takes an at-bat off, she never takes a pitch off," Miller said. "She's always in there grinding, playing hard every pitch on both defense and offense.

"We've seen some really great players come out of this area, but as far as an all-around player, she can do it all. I might be a little biased about it, but definitely, for sure, she's the best."

That's not biased, it's the truth.

Take it from those who know.

Hentges on future:

'We don't know what

virus is going to do'

Jefferson City Lady Jays senior Kara Daly drills a line drive during Wednesday's game with Helias at Vogel Field.

Chris Leuckel

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