It was unseasonably cold and cloudy for the first day of May as the Illinois softball team’s bus traveled north on Interstate 57 to O’Hare International Airport. The team was travelling to University Park, Pa., to play Penn State in a three-game weekend series.

Although she has been well traveled during her time at Illinois, this trip to Nittany Lion Softball Park was one senior Alex Booker had never taken before. It was the first time the Illini had played at Penn State during Booker’s four years.

It was the last regular season Big Ten series of her collegiate career. At that moment, it hadn’t hit her yet.

As the bus moved through the barren cornfields of central Illinois, she passed the time by working on an end-of-career project for her mother, but her mind was set on getting the wins the team needed before the Big Ten tournament. Maybe in the future she will think about it being the last time she played. But as the landscape flew by the window, she was just grateful for the opportunity to play the sport that she loves.

***

By kindergarten, Booker had already played every sport from ballet to ice-skating. She and her brother were always active and busy as kids.

One of the sports she played was baseball. She played in an all-boy’s baseball league with her brother.

Although Booker rarely hit the ball, she reveled in the athleticism the sport demanded. She remembers one hit in particular when she flew around the bases for a triple. Booker thought it was fun to play with the boys. She was proud of being one of two girls in a league of boys. She remembered playing with her neighbor, Scott Heelan, who is now the catcher for the Northwestern baseball team. The grind of baseball was something that she was able to deal with, just like one of the boys.

Then in fifth grade, much to Booker’s dismay, her mother told her she had to switch to softball.

Booker didn’t want to play with the girls. The way they pitched, it seemed the ball nearly reached the ceiling, and when it came down, they couldn’t hit it hard. It was a decision that was met with tears and arguing, hoping to change her mother’s decision.

“She hated the first year or two because she thought the girls couldn’t throw, run or catch,” recalls Terri Booker. “It took her two years until she turned around, and she fell in love with the sport.”

When she did turn around, it was for good. Although at that time, she didn’t realize the significance of practice compared with the significance of a game. She couldn’t tell the difference between what a travel team or a recreational team was. It was one of three or four sports she played at that age. It was just another way for her to get out there and stay active.

Now, she cherishes memories and the friendships made at the time because of the sport. Memories include the traditional walk over to the park to play softball and the trip to the nearby Culvers afterward for postgame treats. Others include fighting to be on the “B” team, rather than the “A” team, just because she wanted to be on the team that one of her classmates was on.

Softball was just one sport. Basketball was her dream. But as she kept growing, she would change.

***

Booker was a three-sport athlete at Warren Township High School in Gurnee, Ill. She juggled the open gyms, tryouts, practices and games among volleyball, basketball and softball. She never had a day off, but she had been used to a busy schedule from a young age.

She continued to impress on the softball diamond. She was one of three freshmen to make the varsity team. She had played with the same girls from a young age on her travel team. They were familiar with each other, which helped lead them to the success.

She also played for the Lake County Liberty travel softball team, where, under the guidance of coach Mike Miguire, she started to bat from the left side and improved her slapping batting style. She also became a vocal leader during her later years, while also leading by example. She was motivated to win and knew she could not be stopped.

“She was a very brash and confident player,” Miguire said. “She really believed in herself and she didn’t hide it. She was proud to say that she was the best there is.”

Her confidence took a hit, however, during the fall of her junior year.

It happened at a volleyball game at Stevenson High School. She had just played in the JV volleyball game and was warming up for the varsity game, a game she would not play in because she had missed the weekend before because of a softball recruiting camp.

Booker was lined up at hitting lines with the rest of the team and wanted to show off in front of everyone. However, after spiking the volleyball, she landed on one foot and fell to the ground. Her friends said they heard the knee pop. Her head coach grabbed her by the back of the jersey and pulled her to the side of the court. The trainer examined her and said he was 99 percent sure of the injury: a torn ACL.

“That’s when I knew it was the end of my year in sports,” Booker said.

Booker’s mom, who attends all of Booker’s games, was not at the game at the request of her daughter. Once she got the call from a crying Booker, she rushed to the gym and took her daughter to the hospital, where the trainer’s assessment was confirmed.

During the recovery process, she had one surgery and two scopes to repair the ACL. She switched therapists after the first therapy sessions were not as she had hoped. Her doctor referred her to Michael Kordecki, one of the top physical therapists in Illinois.

The road to recovery was not easy, often spent screaming into a pillow in the private room and going in for checkups on Christmas and New Years Day. She lost her appetite because of the pain medication and looked like a different person. But the competitor in her wouldn’t let her quit.

“It was a lot for her to overcome that kind of challenge and so it takes a certain type of athlete to not get discouraged, to continue physical therapy, to go through all the sessions,” said Carri McGahan, Booker’s high school softball coach. “She was relentless at every conditioning session she could come to. A true leader is able to not step down from these types of challenges.”

The injury would not only cost her a starting spot on the basketball team her junior year, but also the interest of many schools in terms of softball. One school stood with her through it all: Illinois. She committed to Illinois in the spring of 2009, her junior year, when she would return to the softball team.

Booker helped lead Warren to a 28-8 record her senior season, the best in school history at the time. They would lose in the playoffs, but Booker left Warren holding eight school records. For the Liberty, she would leave with six team records, having led the team to the ASA/USA 18U Class A Nationals in 2008 and 2009.

Booker was ready for the challenge of the Big Ten.  

***

“I can’t lie, it would have been amazing to be drafted tonight. But tonight just fuels me to ball out way harder the rest of my last season!”

That was the tweet Booker sent out on March 31, the night of the National Pro Fastpitch Draft. She was on her Twitter timeline watching players be drafted by teams all the way to the end. By the time the draft was over, Booker had not read her name.

“It was kind of disappointing,” Booker said. “It would have been nice (to be drafted), but at the same time, there’s work that’s got to be done at the end of the day.”

On the field, she became well-acquainted splitting time as a pinch runner, right fielder and center fielder.

Over her time as an Illini, she matured both as a person and a player, according to Illinois head coach Terri Sullivan. Yes, Booker still trash talks with the best of them and gets in the heads of the opponents, but diving catch after diving catch demonstrates that she plays to win.

“She’s just such a competitor, and it’s a player like that you want on your team,” Sullivan said. “She has all the seeds needed to compete at this level and intangibles you don’t see in every kid.”

Her senior year has been a rollercoaster. The Illini started with a promising 18-6 record heading into Big Ten play. The team has been 9-19 since then, but Booker managed to find a bright spot, as she usually does. In the last home series of her career, the Illini shocked No. 4 Michigan 10-2, a great way to end her career at Eichelberger Field. 

Booker’s name can be read in four all-time lists for the Illinois softball program. She has played in 193 games, earned All-Big Ten Second Team, Big Ten All-Defensive Team and Big Ten Player of the Week. This season, she hit for the first cycle in program history. She will graduate in a few weeks with a degree in Recreation, Sport and Tourism.

But all of this is nothing in comparison to the leadership she provides the team. She leads both vocally and by example. She talks to people individually and exemplifies how the game should be played.

“Booker has been a great leader for us. As a freshman, I look up to her just as a player,” outfielder Nicole Evans said. “She has a lot of pride in our team and she has a lot of pride in our school.”

Come fall, she will travel to Commerce, Texas, where she will be a graduate assistant for Texas A&M-Commerce. It is there that she hopes to gain the experience she needs to one day be a softball coach at a Division I school.

But before she moves to Texas, she will get one final opportunity to enjoy the game as a player.

On May 25, she will try out for the Chicago Bandits, the team she will be interning with this summer, hoping to walk on to the team. She will bring friends along and show the Bandits why they need a player such as her. She is confident — as she has been throughout her life — that with the hard work and hustle she has built herself upon, she will have a chance to make the team.

“I can’t leave the game of softball. I’m in love with it,” Booker said. “This is my passion and my way of life.”

***

It was warm and sunny as the Illini team bus traveled south on Interstate 57. Its destination was Champaign, but the team’s arrival was a day late due to flight complications the day before. The team returned from a three-game weekend sweep of Penn State, the Illini’s first Big Ten series win of the season.

As the bus passed farm after farm, Alex Booker finished her end of career project for her mother: a DVD with career highlights and pictures and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings she’d been collecting during her four years at Illinois.

The feeling on the bus for her is different this time, though. Although her bus rides as a player are winding down, the trips from campus to campus will never stop as she starts her collegiate coaching career.

What has changed is her realization of the end. She is happy to have won the last regular season series of her career but is fearful that any day could be the last day she plays the sport she has fallen in love with, the sport she once argued she didn’t want to play.

Michal can be reached at [email protected] and @bennythebull94.