Team Loses Player

By: Holly Wagner/Marissa Cleaver

Updated: Mon 9:56 PM, Apr 05, 2004

The Hastings Softball Team is grieving after one player is killed, another hurt in a car crash.

Jessica Madsen of Kansas died Friday. Madsen and teammate Stacy Rowe, also of Kansas were heading home. Rowe swerved to miss a deer on the highway when the car rolled. Madsen was thrown out of the car and killed. Rowe is currently in the hospital.
Both were freshman at Hastings College. Rowe and Madsen pitched for the Broncos Softball Team. Madsen was on the starting rotation.

Assistant Coach and Athletic Director Fran Hummel says, "She had a great sense of humor, she would always give you a little nudge."

Jason Duroscher, Athletic Trainer, says, "She was kind of loud - in a good way. She was just excitement."

Duroscher says Madsen loved being on the softball field.

"When you really enjoy something and you really love something and your passionate about it, it's easy to have a great attitude about it. Obviously she was that way about softball. It think she was that way about life."

Her teammates decided to play their game Monday in honor of Madsen.

Renee Weavorg is the parent of one player. She said her daughter is taking the news hard.

"She was really upset the other day. She called and was crying and hysterical. She was really close with this girl," said Weavorg.

The team wore purple armbands in honor of Madsen. Purple - because Madsen's favorite team is Kansas State, and all of the armbands had her number on them, 24.

The players say they'll wear them the rest of the year. They're planning to wear one for Stacy Rowe too. They say they'll wear that one - until she comes back to the field to play.

The team won the first game of their double header against York College 2-1.

Memorial services for Madsen are scheduled for Saturday in her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas.

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