by Jens Deju
Karrie Fortman is a senior catcher on the SIU softball team. Fortman walked on after not playing her freshman year and has been the team's primary catcher for the past two seasons. She recently took some time off to speak to Jens Deju of the Daily Egyptian.
Daily Egyptian: How would you describe yourself as a player?
Karrie Fortman: I think on this team I'm sort of like the fun one. I'm the loudest one on the team. Everyone thinks I'm the craziest one, but I try to be a leader. Being the catcher, I pretty much have to be the most vocal person on the field at all times and I just try to keep everyone up, and when I'm down or when I'm not doing something I'm supposed to be, I try not to let anyone else notice that.
DE: Do you try to model yourself after any other players?
KF: I think I just learned a lot from like the past seniors. My first year here I looked up to a lot of the seniors, like Jamie Campbell, Carisa Winters and last year Marta Viefhaus and [Erin Stremsterfer] and [Amanda Rexroat] and Julie [Meier] and I looked up to all of them a lot. I just try to lead, try to set good examples, just so everyone else can do that when I'm gone.
DE: How would you describe yourself off the field?
KF: I would describe myself off the field I guess the same way I am on the field. I don't act any different, other than when it's time to get down to business, I get down to business. But I still like to have fun and be crazy the same way on and off the field and I treat everyone on my team the same exact way other than I'm a little more serious out here.
DE: Do you have any superstitions?
KF: No, not at all. Well, actually the one that I do is when we have home games here, ever since my first year playing, I go to my secret doughnut place and I have to eat doughnuts before every single game. It's not really superstition because I don't do it on the road, just for home games.
DE: What made you decide to return to playing after sitting out your freshman year?
KF: Just the love the game. I missed it so much. I didn't realize how much I loved playing until I actually didn't have it for a year. I'd come out and watch them play my first year and I realized that I could do it and I wanted to be part of it.
DE: Did you think you'd play as much as you did right off the bat?
KF: No, not at all. I thought I could play with them, like I thought I was good enough to play, but I thought it would take a while. I didn't expect to come on the team and right off the bat just start catching every single game, but I'm glad it happened that way because it made me a better player defensively.
DE: You caught for both Carisa Winters and Erin Stremsterfer. How would you compare the two?
KF: They're a lot alike in the sense that they both throw the ball hard and they both had the best change-up I've ever seen in my life ... but they were different in the sense that Carisa is just Carisa - anyone that knows her knows she's crazy. I look up to both of them, I have so much respect for both of them and basically I owe a lot of why I am the way I am today and how I've improved so much to them because I was so lucky to catch two of the best pitchers in the conference ever. I think that they have a lot to do with why I catch the way I do now.
DE: Favorite actor?
KF: Does Popeye count? Because when I was little he was my favorite because his muscles were so big, so Popeye's my favorite.
DE: Favorite movie?
KF: Oh, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
DE: Favorite TV show?
KF: Wheel of Fortune. I watch it every night.
DE: Favorite musician?
KF: I don't know. I like everything from like Dave Matthews Band to like Usher. You can make it up out of those.
DE: Favorite local restaurant?
KF: Probably 17th Street. Does that count as local? Then 17th Street - I love it.
Reporter Jens Deju can be reached at jdeju@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
