Alexandra “Zami” (Mogill) Hay

STREATOR

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Accomplishments

• Playing for her father at SHS,

Mogill was the star pitcher on

Streator’s 1983 Class A state championship team, which remains the school’s only state title • Attended Eastern Illinois

University, where she was

All-Gateway Conference

MVP in 1988, a three-time all-conference selection and held 11 school records • An American Softball

Association Second Team

All-American, she was invited to try out for the Pan

American Games • Member of the EIU Hall of Fame, named to the

Missouri Valley Conference

All-Centennial Team and her likeness is featured in a mural tribute to female athletes at Lantz Arena on the EIU campus

By Andy Tavegia

NOW WHERE are they W hen Alexandra “Zami” (Mogill) Hay walked down the street as a youngster to give Joy Ozretich $5 to join Streator Girls Softball, she thought she was just following the lead of her best friend, Amy Pedelty. She had no idea the Pandora’s box she was about to open. “I didn’t know anything about it; I didn’t even know how to spell,” Hay joked. “Our coach said, ‘Write down three positions you want to play.’ I was afraid I would spell ‘Field’ wrong. I thought catcher was safe, so I wrote that down and started as a catcher. It wasn’t really a conscious decision. I think it’s a matter of where you find success you tend to find the love for it.”

If that’s the case, she found plenty of love because success has followed her throughout her softball and her professional lives, including a spot in the Class of 2020-21 in the NewsTribune’s Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame.

See Hay Page 22

FROM PAGE 21

That $5 was the beginning of a wonderful career that stretched from SGS to Streator Township High School to a record-holder at Eastern Illinois University.

Ask Hay and she quickly will attribute much of what she learned from her plentiful opportunities – be it in Streator’s youth program or playing in a women’s travel league – to some pretty noteworthy teachers.

While it began with Ozretich’s youth program, it only grew, most notably under the tutelage of her father, the late A. Timothy Mogill, but also Ed Serdar, who discovered her abilities after a pair of pitching camps prior to her freshman year at Streator.

That began a stretch where Hay got a chance to work with some of the biggest names around Illinois softball, including Mark Cantor and then Lyle Day of the Bloomington Hearts. Through those names, Hay said she learned the most important ingredient to being a successful pitcher in a sport where the workload can get heavy.

“Trust in me,” she said. “I would pitch four, five, six, seven games in a weekend. If I felt like I could do it, they would put me out there. I never wanted to come out. I would say, ‘Put the ball in my hand,’ and they would put the ball in my hand.”

They helped create the face of Streator softball in the early 1980s, a program with a very clear championship pedigree. That all culminated in 1983 when Streator returned 10 letterwinners, including ace Hay, from a team that went 22-3 and won NCIC and regional championships the previous season.

That experience – plus a huge late-season win over powerful Limestone in the Streator Invitational – told this group there’s nothing wrong with reaching for the stars.

“I think everyone from my generation probably says this, but it was such a simpler time; we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” she said of that team. “We were just a bunch of girls playing ball and having fun together. There was a core group of us that were absolutely the best of friends since before kindergarten. It was really organic and natural.

“(With the invitational win), my dad noted at the time that, ‘Hey, we might actually have something special here.’”

The Bulldogs lost that invitational championship game to Quincy Notre Dame. But that was alright because revenge can be sweet, as that team found out. Streator defeated the defending state champs 2-1 in the state semifinals right before beating Rich Central 6-2 for the only state title in school history. It remains one of only two female team state championships in area history.

Streator nearly did it again the next year, falling in the state quarterfinals to conclude a 26-2-1 season.

In her four years, Streator amassed an amazing 9917-1 record with four NCIC and regional titles. And that was just the warm up. She moved on to EIU, where she became one of the best in school history and still holds school records for lowest career earned-run average (0.75), wins (78) and innings pitched, to name a few.

Those experiences not only shaped Hay as a hall of fame pitcher, but also as an advocate for equality in women’s sports. She was the driving force behind a Title IX lawsuit against the Indiana school where her children attended. The goal of the lawsuit was to provide equal opportunities for the girls of the school, which did not have equal numbers of levels for all boys and girls sports, including softball (three levels for baseball and only two for softball).

She also has become a success professionally, rising to the position of dean at Thornwood High School in South Holland.

Hay currently calls Kankakee home with her husband, Mel, and has three children – Sofia, Gabriella and Mel.

Photo from June 2019 Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame Inaugural Banquet

Emcee Lanny Slevin presents the Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame induction plaque to Nicole (Coates) Schaefbauer at the June 2019 inaugural honoree banquet.

FILE PHOTO

Louis Rios, escorted by his son Mark, accepting the NewsTribune’s first-ever Lanny Slevin Lifetime Achievement Award for his 5 1/2 decades of training and coaching boxing in the Illinois Valley

FILE PHOTO

Congratulationstoall Classof20/21 Inductees!

ST R

FORD • LINCOLN • RENTAL

Hours:Monday-Friday8AMto5PM,Saturday8AMto12Noon N. RTE23 STREATOR 815.672.3187 307 W. MAINSTREET OTTAWA 815-324-9166

SM-LA1911442 starfordstreator.com 22 September 29, 2021 | Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame | A NewsTribune Publication