Deana Hu is hopeful that the West Windsor-Plainsboro softball team and she can do more this year.
Those goals will be easier for the team than Hu, the sophomore center fielder who had an outstanding first high school season.
“She had an incredible season for a freshman, or any stage of high school,” said WW-P head coach Mark Lee. “It was one incredible year she put forth.”
Hu hit .541 with 40 hits, 24 runs and 27 stolen bases last spring. She was named team Most Valuable Player and named to the Carpenter Cup all-star team that represented Mercer County. WW-P finished 10-14 with only one senior starter.
“I had a really great time,” Hu said. “Honestly I’m hoping to do even better this year, but I thought it was really fun. I’m looking to improve this year.”
An encore to last year’s eye-opening debut could be tough for Hu. She was nominated for New Jersey Freshman of the Year, and was a second-team All-Colonial Valley Conference selection in a league that boasts Notre Dame, Steinert and Robbinsville – three of the best programs in the whole state. WW-P opens the season April 2 against Robbinsville, an early test for both Hu and the team.
“I think I can improve in anything,” Hu said. “I could always hit harder, run faster, just do whatever I can to help my team. We’re trying to get more wins this year. I’ll try to do whatever I can to get that goal.”
Hu is humble about her accomplishments, but she’s also driven. She’s seen her statistics, but she tries not to dwell on them. She is motivated to strive for her potential.
“I think I always want to be the best, and the best I can be, and the best out there,” Hu said. “I feel like everyone around you is getting better so you can’t just slack off. I try to put in as much work as possible so I’m not left behind.”
Hu gives WW-P a good starting point for the returning players. She can help in multiple areas both with her offense and defense.
“She’s been in center field predominantly, and she’s every bit as good defensively as she is offensively,” Lee said. “And just a great teammate. Having tryouts, you hear her encouraging the other girls. You can’t teach that. She does it naturally. It’s been great having her in the field. And at the top of our lineup, she’s a table setter. She sets our offense up and really she sets the defense up, up the middle as well.”
For the third year in a row, the WW-P team is playing United with players from both WW-P High North and WW-P High South pooling together to get the numbers to play. Lee says the best measure of how well the players mesh is that he can’t tell who goes to which school.
“I go to South but a lot of North kids I grew up playing with,” Hu said. “It’s definitely good to get to play with them again.”
Ruby Madia, who graduated and is playing for Babson College, is the lone starter gone. With a larger and deeper group than they’ve had in the last three years, optimism is high that the United squad will be even more competitive.
“We didn’t lose that many seniors,” Hu said. “We have a lot of returning seniors and they’re a really great group of kids. And we also have a big freshman class incoming so we have a lot more kids this year than we did last year. It’s looking really promising so I’m really excited.”
Hu has an infectious excitement about the game. She plays year-round travel softball for the NJ Ruthless Hersh U18, but also plays soccer and basketball for WW-P South. She is an outstanding student as well who balances school with her sports. As the spring approaches, though, she can’t help but look forward to her top sport.
“I try to enjoy each sport and each season,” Hu said. “But by the time it hits January/February, I’m waiting and the excitement is really building.”
Hu showed up to last year’s tryouts beaming with excitement. It showed in her play as well and even how she conducted herself with the team as a freshman.
“She came in from Day One and has an innate ability of leadership and smiling the whole time,” Lee said. “And just to start off, you know this is a special player and a special talent.”
Hu has confidence in her abilities, but she wasn’t sure what to expect from the high school league. There is a wide range of talent in the CVC, and she showed that she could play with anyone.
“I’ve looked back a few times and I wasn’t too confident and I wasn’t too surprised,” Hu said. “I was just trying to play and let whatever happened happen. I think if I put in the work and do my best I’ll see some good results hopefully.”
Hu put together plenty of good results last spring. A slap hitter, Hu put a lot of pressure on defenses with her ability to make contact and her speed. She finished among the top hitters in the CVC. She was third in hits in the conference and tops in stolen bases.
“I like where my batting average was at the end of the season,” she said. “That might be very statistics based and make me sound kind of bad, but I didn’t really know what to expect coming into high school. I didn’t know how it would be, and how I would do. I was really nervous, but I was happy with the way it ended.”
Following the season, Hu was selected for the Carpenter Cup team. She joined the all-star group of young Mercer County players.
“I was really honored,” she said. “I’ve seen the stats and I know the other girls in the conference who are my age who are also insane. I was really grateful to get the chance to play with them.”
The Mercer County team won all three of its bracket play games in the Carpenter Cup. In the semifinals, they held the lead on Tri-Cape before the eventual champions rallied to knock them out of the tournament.
“I thought it was a great experience,” Hu said. “The fun-est thing I think was I got to meet a lot of the girls from the conference that I had searched them up and looked at their stats on paper, but I never met them personally. I got to meet all these girls from different schools that are also at the highest level. That was really fun for me.”
Being named to the Mercer all-star group acknowledged her level of play. It affirmed just how good she has gotten, even if she tries not to think that way.
“That really showed me that I could compete with them and I could be at that level,” Hu said. “But every time I get too cocky, the game of softball likes to humble me.”
Her big debut season sets the stage for high expectations for this year, and every CVC will be trying to counter her strengths. That pressure could be an obstacle, but Hu approaches the game looking to have as much fun playing as possible.
“I always find that I perform better when try not to think about all the pressure and this and that,” she said. “When I’m just trying to have fun is when I always do best. And then I’m actually having fun. So I’m trying not to focus on the fact that they can look at my stats from last year and pull it up. I’m trying not to focus on anything except going out there and doing my thing.”
Lee isn’t worried about a sophomore slump. Hu fits the bill of other top talents that he has seen manage just fine.
“I’ve seen players that are pretty special over the years, and one of the things about is they’re resilient,” Lee said. “Her make-up is resilient. Even if she had a slump, she would excel in other areas. I really anticipate another great season out of her and taking it to another level.”
Hu is looking at continuing to play at a higher level after WW-P. She has spent parts of the offseason at college clinics, and she has started to explore the opportunity to play beyond high school.
“I would love to get to play in college,” she said. “I’m looking to go to a high academic. Right now, I’m trying not to focus too much on that and just focus on the season. Hopefully I’ll think about college later on after the season ends.”
She started to consider the college option last year. She talked to Madia a little about that step, and then she started to hear more and more about college prospects. It seemed like a real possibility.
“As you get to high school, my teammates on my travel team, they’re talking about colleges,” Hu said. “That’s when I started to entertain the idea and started to look more into it. It seemed like something that would be really cool. I’m just going with the flow and trusting the process.”
Her top priority for now is helping WW-P win more games. Hu is confident that the United team has a chance to be better, and they are approaching this spring with higher expectations.
“I think just the fact that we have such a big returning group,” Hu said. “We had our first practice and we talked about how this year we’re going to try to be more competitive in everything and everyone is going to be a little more serious this year. We’re going to try to do better. With so many returners and we have some good freshmen coming up, and we didn’t lose too many pitchers or anything, so I think we have the potential to make a better run this year.”
Having a player of Deana Hu’s caliber helps. She has a contagious enthusiasm for the game and her balanced approach between having fun and driving to be the best is healthy for all.
“Her play alone helps elevate everyone else’s game,” Lee said. “They see how good she really is and the potential that she has to really excel at this sport. And she’s a better person than a player, which says a lot about her. She is the consummate teammate that you want to have on the field.”
WW-P softball player Deana Hu. (Photo by Joe Bossio.),
