Catching up with Katie Lee

Buffalo Grove senior Katie Lee seems fearless at times.

Like when you see her crash into the wall during a regional girls basketball championship game against Round Lake while trying to save the basketball from going out of bounds.

Or when she dives on the floor to swat the ball out of the hands of a Marist player during the third-place game of the Class 4A state finals.

Or when she's backpedaling into the left-centerfield fence, leaping over it and making a spectacular catch to rob Elk Grove's Kayla Mahoney of a home run on the Buffalo Grove softball field.

"It just kind of happened," said Lee, a two-time all-area softball player. "It's not like I say, "I need to catch this so … I'm going to turn my head, look over my shoulder, jump over the fence and catch it.

"It doesn't happen that way at all. I really can't explain it. It just happens."

Maybe because Lee is one of the finest athletes in the northwest suburbs.

"She goes 100 percent all the time," said BG softball coach Laura Stock. "Katie is aggressive and not afraid to fail. As a coach, you know she is going to go after every ball with everything she has. That's just the way she plays the game."

Lee has also played volleyball at Buffalo Grove, serving as a libero two years ago when the position was first introduced to high school in Illinois.

"Going downstate in basketball the last two seasons was definitely the best experiences I've had in high school sports," Lee said. "Some of our players did it three straight times, and four straight supersectionals. It's just so amazing."

Lee has had a pretty amazing high school career. She boasts a 5.17 GPA on a 5.0 scale and ranks in the top 10 percent of her class.

She also has or does participate in MOST (Mentors of Student Talent), TDP (Talent Development Program), RESPECT (promotes respect among students), an Interact Community Service Group and STAFF (Students Against Frightened Freshmen).

"No big deal," Lee says. "Like STAFF, that was just six hours of my life to be able to help someone."

Lee would like to be able to help rehabbing athletes and the elderly in the future.

She plans to study athletic training/physical therapy in college.

"I knew I was going into the medical field but I wasn't sure what area," she said. "Every little kid wants to be a doctor or a veterinarian but I didn't know if I could cut up animals. I love them.

"With athletic training/physical training, you're not dealing with surgeries but it's still a way to treat the human body and for me to stay close to sports.

"And I'll be able to help my family, and older relatives. It's so hard to see older people having trouble walking and things like that, and not being able to help them."

This spring, Lee will be helping three freshman pitchers learn the ropes of varsity softball.

It's a situation she relished after playing centerfield last year.

"You get so many more touches on the ball as a catcher," Lee said.

"You want your best athletes to have the most touches or influence on the game," Stock said. "It was a tough decision to move her from centerfield back to catcher this year (Lee caught as a sophomore).

"She is one of the best high school outfielders I have ever seen. She can throw runners out at first from centerfield, rob batters of base hits with diving catches, or of home runs with leaping grabs over the fence."

Behind the plate, Lee has already picked off three runners and thrown out three trying to steal this spring.

"I feel like I'm a little more in control of what is happening on the field," she said. "And I'm really excited to be catching our three freshmen."

No doubt, Katie grew up playing catch with sister Megan, a former Bison infielder now studying at Illinois Wesleyan, where she also played softball for two seasons.

"My sister and I are so competitive," Katie said. "We'd always try to compete against each other to make the other one better. Megan is the same way as I so we both just wanted to keep trying to climb the ladder of success.

"And she's not afraid to say something to me if I do something wrong. We know each other's flaws and try to work them out."

Katie sure shows few flaws on the softball diamond. Last season she set the school record for doubles (16) and tied it for extra base hits (18) with teammate Stephanie Rudolfi.

Katie's mother Wanda, who grew up in Canada, and her father Peter, a Chicago native, encouraged their daughters in sports at young ages.

Katie's first sports were actually gymnastics and swimming.

She still remembers in pre-school when an instructor for the Jesse White Tumblers came to Apple School in Chicago.

"He'd come in during our nap time so that's where I learned to jump," Katie said. "I used to be able to do a back flip."

Now she just seems to do whatever she has to make the play in whatever sport she is playing.

"Basketball is more fast-paced and there are a lot of different things you can do on the floor," she said. "In softball, it's a different kind of adrenaline. You have that one chance to make the play. You've got to risk it all.

"I'm more of leader in softball because I think I'm better in that sport. I understand the game better."

She has been playing it since the fifth grade. In travel softball before high school, Lee always played with an age-group above her own.

"Playing with those older girls helped my transition from eighth grade to high school," Lee said. "I had already played with the girls on varsity. I wasn't nervous or intimidated. They knew who I was and how I could perform. It made the transition a lot easier."

Now everyone in the northwest suburbs knows Lee is one of the finest performers you'll find on the field or in the classroom.