Lake Linden-Hubbell shortstop Emily Jokela raises her arms to celebrate hitting a home run as she makes her way to home plate during a game against L’Anse in on Saturday, May 24, at the Bill Givens Field in Hancock. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On Tuesday, two local high school softball stars will get the chance to represent the Copper Country as part of the MHSSCA All-Star Game at the Davenport University Softball Stadium. Hancock’s Sadie Biekkola and Lake Linden-Hubbell’s Emily Jokela will both dress for the D4 White Team Tuesday.

For the pair, this being either teammates or opponents is something that goes back to their earliest days of travel softball.

“Those two were part of the very first travel program that we had up here when Northern Chill started,” said Hancock coach Craig Biekkola. “They were teammates back then. And then, over the course of time, there was another travel group, the (Copper Country) Crush, that came along, and they battled many times as pitchers and competitors with those two groups.

“They had a lot of really good games against each other, obviously, through high school as well. But, over the course of their careers, there’s no doubt that they’re two of the finest softball players that have ever come out of this area.”

In the case of his daughter, Sadie, Craig Biekkola feels that she has been a tremendous part of Hancock’s success over the last four years, which included three district titles.

“She stepped right in as a freshman and contributed right away,” he said. “That was more so as a pitcher, I think, her first year. Then each year her hitting improved, and obviously her pitching improved as well along the way. She became a very valuable piece of the team, offensively and defensively.

“Each year it became a little bit more and more. I guess over the course of her four seasons,(she had) a lot of success individually, and obviously that helped the team to achieve a lot of success during the regular season and postseason.”

Sadie Biekkola earned All-State honorable mention for the second straight season after being the Bulldogs’ top pitcher, and one of the key offensive threats every time she came to the plate.

“It’s a great individual honor for her,” said Craig Biekkola. “I guess it proves that, if you work hard, oftentimes you are rewarded for it. I think this shows that she has.

“I’ve seen it, as her father and coach for many years. She’s put in a lot of time, and a lot of hard work, and it’s nice for her to get this recognition.”

Craig Biekkola also mentioned how valuable it is to his team to have a player recognized in this way.

“It’s good for Hancock, good for our program,” he said, “and it’s good for the rest of the local area as well, to get that exposure from here.”

The Lakes finally beat the Bulldogs this year to claim the district title, but even coach Curtis Kinnunen has been impressed by how difficult Sadie Biekkola made life for his team.

“With Sadie, we knew we were getting,” he said. “She was a great pitcher. She can hit her spots. She’s a disciplined pitcher, and a lot of girls couldn’t hit her. We worked on stuff like not swinging at high ones, or not swinging to junk, but when they get up there, and they see Sadie, it’s like you just, you need to swing at it.

“Sadie’s a great pitcher, and even her hitting was really great.”

Jokela can pitch and run effectively

Jokela, on the other hand, used her speed to her advantage when up to bat.

“The couple years that I had with her, it was a great, great time,” said Kinnunen. “Her speed, her hitting, her pitching, and shortstop, it was just fun to watch.”

She mostly played pitcher or shortstop in her high school career, but Kinnunen felt that Jokela is the rare talent that could succeed anywhere on the field.

“I think a couple of games, she’d even played outfield,” he said. “She wanted to play outfield. You see her catch the ball, and she’s waiting, waiting, and she’s wanting to just throw a girl off from the outfield.”

Jokela possesses the kind of speed that makes her a threat every time she is at the plate.

“With her speed, if she just hits one down the right field line, a lot of times she’d be making that a triple, or hitting them over right over the fence. It gives you a lot of options.”

If her hitting wasn’t scary enough, Jokela, when throwing well, could be counted on for 15 or more strikeouts per game.

“When she’s on as far as pitching, when top athletes can do that, they can take over a game, and she did that numerous times,” said Craig Biekkola. “What we tried to do was try to play a little bit of small ball. We figured out once you get baserunners on, which sometimes it’s not easy against a competitor like her, things get more difficult for the pitcher when there’s action in the field, and there’s action on the bases. That’s what we tried to do as best we could to disrupt her rhythm and flow by doing that.”

Biekkola also admitted that this season, his team could not find the same success they had against her when she was younger.

“We had a number of games where we were successful, but, obviously, this year, in the playoffs, she dominated us, and they were able to make it out of the district,” he said.

Recognition means a lot

For both Jokela and Sadie Biekkola, getting statewide recognition is a big deal.

“It’s a great honor for both of them,” Craig Biekkola said. “As they grew up together, played together, and then played against each other, the two of them have had success against teams from out of the area, and against some of the bigger programs, some of the more well-known ones, had some great games against some top competition. More and more coaches noticed, and obviously, with some postseason success that we had and then that they had this year, that recognition gets around, and people start to see that we do have some quality players and quality teams up here. For the future that’s good for all the rest of the schools up in the Western U.P.”

Impact on softball’s future

Sadie Biekkola has a sister, Lucy, who was a freshman on the Bulldogs this season, and a younger sister, Ivy, who was part of the district champion Little League Minors softball team from Portage Lake this past week. Their father has already seen the impact that his eldest daughter, and Jokela as well, have had on the younger players.

“This Little League district team that’s moving on in the state, a lot of those girls have older sisters that play, and this group now, that nine and 10-year-old group, they’re so much better than Sadie and Emily’s group were at that same age,” he said. “Just the things that they’re able to do, it’s many, many, many times greater than what these older girls did back then. So the future is really good with the softball up here.”

Other UP kids involved

In the Division 2 game, Escanaba pitcher Grayson LaMarche, first baseman McKenzie Engebretson, and third baseman Katey Lamb are all on the White Team, with coach Andy Fields serving as one of the team’s coaching staff.

In the Division 3 game, Gladstone catcher Lauren Sunquist and pitcher Tia Schone are playing for the Red Team.

Hancock pitcher Sadie Biekkola awaits a pitch from Lake Linden-Hubbell’s Emily Jokela during a game on Tuesday, May 27, at the Bill Givens Field in Hancock. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)