Laura Roecker | Age 17 | Elkhorn High School
When Laura started playing softball at the age of six, she could only dream of leading her team to a state championship game.
At age 10, Laura was in love with softball and joined the Elkhorn Slammers select team. That year, the team went on to win the Class C State Championship and she started to take an interest in pitching. Laura was able to throw the ball incredibly hard but with little control — pitching lessons helped to perfect her pitch.
Laura continued on to play with the Millard Athletic Association Sizzle select teams for five years and then moved on to play gold level with both the Nebraska Fury and Nebraska Gold softball organizations. As a member of the Nebraska Gold team this past summer, Laura had a 1.9 ERA pitching and the team finished 17th in the nation in the PGF National Tournament in Huntington Beach, California. Laura will end her select softball career playing on the Omaha Quakes Gold team.
At Elkhorn High School, Laura has been a varsity starter on the softball team for four years. As a freshman, Laura also played basketball and even lettered in the sport but chose to give it up to concentrate on softball. During her sophomore year, she led the softball team to both conference and district championships and a second place finish at the Class B NSAA State Tournament. Laura was selected to the Class B All-State team and All-Conference honors for her pitching performance that year. Heartbreak followed her junior year. Due to an arm injury she suffered during the summer season, she was unable to pitch for four months.
Laura battled back the summer before her senior year to lead her team through an incredible season. Elkhorn High School Lady Antlers finished the season with a 30 – 5 record. Laura completed the season 21 – 3 including 10 shutout games. In those 24 games, she had 273 strikeouts and an ERA of .90. In addition, Laura had a batting average of .434 her senior season.
The crowning achievement of Laura’s senior season was winning the Class B NSAA State Championship in October. Elkhorn High School had to face Elkhorn South High School in two elimination games and were victorious.
Off the field, Laura is a four year Honor Roll student and volunteers at the VSP Club and the Life Care Center of Elkhorn. Next fall, Laura will attend the University of Nebraska Omaha where she will play softball for the Mavericks.
Laura is the daughter of David and Susan Roecker of Elkhorn. She has two older sisters, Kayla and Ashley, and a younger brother, Joseph (15).
