Queen of Ks

Dani Hofer is a normal girl who goes to the prom and hangs out with friends. Except when she's on the mound with the ball in her hand.

By BOB PUTNAM
Published May 11, 2005

[Times photo: Scott Keeler]

[Times photo: Edmund Fountain] Dani Hofer has been pitching softballs since she was 6 years old. The LSU recruit is 21-0 and has allowed just two runs this season.

[Times photo, 2004: Chris Zuppa] Dani Hofer pitched Palm Harbor U. to a Class 5A state championship a year ago as the Hurricanes defeated Naples 1-0 in Tampa. Hofer and the Canes hope for more of the same this season.

PALM HARBOR - For the Dunedin players, there was, in a minimal way, hope.

Not really for a victory over Palm Harbor University in the district semifinals, no matter how long they held the Hurricanes off the scoreboard.

And as for a hit, well there wasn't too much of a chance of that either.

But somewhere lurked the chance - if bat and ball somehow swept across the same plane at precisely the right instant - that a Falcon might actually put the ball in play.

The cause of such meager optimism was at the center of the pitching circle, 40 feet from home plate; 5-foot-10 Dani Hofer, a blue-eyed 17-year-old with a right arm created to do wondrous things.

Out of a windmilling windup with a whipsaw finish, Hofer, in a 1-0 victory, struck out 14 in eight innings. Ho-hum. Another shutout (she has 19 this season). Another perfect game (her fifth).

"It's weird because opponents sometimes just look at the ball and don't even swing," Hofer said. "They're amazed by the speed."

Enough euphoria. Who is this empress of the mound with the ridiculous numbers? Beyond being one of the best softball players in the nation (she has signed with Louisiana State), the Palm Harbor senior is an honor student, a jokester, a volunteer who plays bingo with senior citizens. Those around her say she's also a well-adjusted young woman who was every bit as nervous about the senior prom as stepping onto the mound.

"Actually, I think she was stressed more about the prom, with the hair, the dress, stuff like that," said Dani's father, Ed Hofer. "I think that's because it was out of her normal routine."

The prom went without a hitch, like her softball career. Last season, she led the Hurricanes to the Class 5A state title and was named the Times All-Suncoast Player of the Year.

This season, she is undefeated (21-0) and has allowed two runs.

That's not a misprint.

Two!

"By the time Dani is finished, she could own just about every record in Pinellas County and maybe more," Palm Harbor University coach Chuck Poetter said. "She's phenomenal."

It didn't take long for Dani to be drawn to softball. Her older sister, Dana, was a Little League pitcher, and Dani routinely tagged along with the family for games.

The two bonded through the sport. Dana pitched. Dani cheered. They talked softball. They lived softball. But Dani wanted more. She was itching to get on the mound.

One day, Dana was throwing with her grandfather when 6-year-old Dani asked if she could try. Dani swung her arm in a complete circle to build lots of heat on the pitch and hurled a strike.

Grandpa was stunned.

"I remember my father called me right after that and said, "Dani has been paying more attention to softball than you know,"' Ed said. "She wound up with a windmill and threw a strike. Pretty fast, too. I knew right then I had a pitcher on my hands."

Dani immediately started playing Little League. The following year, Ed, 50, a former high school pitcher in St. Louis, took over management of Dani's travel team, the 10-and-under Clearwater Bullets. Dani wanted to pitch and the folks wanted to win - which made for a happy home.

Dani was a member of the 10-and-under team in 1997 that won the International Softball Association World Series. She was good enough that she moved up to the 12-and-under team that won another ISA World Series title the following year. Dani, 9 at the time, was the MVP.

Around the same time, Ed set up a batting cage/pitching mound in the backyard so his daughters could practice whenever they wanted. By 14, Dani was pitching for an 18-and-under team. Last summer she helped her Clearwater Bombers 18-and-under team win a PONY national championship. She even gave up club soccer to commit more time to softball.

"Dani always picked things up pretty quickly," Ed said. "But I wasn't going to start her just because she was my daughter. She had to earn it. She only had 25 at-bats her first year and pitched just a few games. But she worked hard and earned the right to start."

Although the sport comes rather easily to Dani, Ed makes sure she keeps her success in perspective.

"If Dani pitches a perfect game," Ed said, "I'll still make her clean her room."

Softball pretty much consumed Dani's life. She became the family's dominant pitcher, overtaking Dana, who eventually switched to third base and started four years at Palm Harbor (1999-2002) before giving up the sport to focus on academics at the University of Florida.

But it wasn't enough to be the best Hofer. Dani wanted more. She patterned herself after her favorite player, two-time Olympic gold medalist pitcher Michele Smith.

Dani honed her game by religiously studying Smith's 1988 instructional video and taking pitching lessons. There also were Little League and travel squad games.

The work paid off. Hofer now throws in the mid-60s - the equivalent of 95 mph from a baseball rubber - with pitches that hop, dip and do pretty much everything but turn right on red. She's so fast that Ed wears shin guards and his palms throb whenever he tries to catch her.

"I kind of just stand back in awe at the movement and the speed," Ed said. "I can only imagine what a batter must feel like."

From 40 feet away, Dani can practically count the batter's fillings. That makes it all the more unsettling when she goes through her mad windmilling motion and hurls a riseball that sounds like air rushing out of a tire.

SSSSS!

The batter usually catches a glimpse of that heater that whistles past her ear.

By then, it's too late.

Strike 3.

"I know some girls are scared to death to bat against her," Palm Harbor catcher Kristina Hilberth said. "They'll do anything, bunt, slap, whatever, just to make contact and hopefully ruin what was going to be a perfect game.

"I've heard from opponents on more than one occasion that Dani can be intimidating."

Intimidating?

This is the same girl who blushes at attention and who is known for her skewered sentences.

"She comes up with a lot of Yogi Berraisms," Poetter said.

Hilberth remembers one in particular.

"Dani's father always has this running joke that goes,"There's queen bees, there's honey bees, but you're nothing but a wanna bee,"' Hilberth said. "Dani always butchers it. She always starts off by saying Willabees or something like that.

"She's kind of ditzy, but that's what makes her a lot of fun."

Hofer has reached rock-star status with her ability to mow down batters. During the region final last year, the baseball team paid homage to her by pinning K signs on the fence and emerging from the outfield with blue letters that spelled: HOFER IS GOD.

Before a photo shoot this year, the same baseball players stopped their warmups when it was Hofer's turn to get her picture taken.

"I don't like having so much attention," Hofer said. "Everyone thinks I'm great and I'm intimidating. But I don't see that. I'm just a humble girl. I guess people just don't know me."

Dani, who boasts a 3.6 GPA, is just as comfortable wake boarding at her family's vacation home in North Carolina, going to Clearwater Beach or eating orange chicken at the mall as she is on the mound.

"Dani is one of the most well-rounded girls I've ever met," Poetter said. "Sure, she loves softball, but she has other interests, too. That's what makes her such a pleasure."

But make no mistake. Hofer is one of the scariest pitchers in softball on the days she's scheduled to start, beginning from the moment she wakes up. Even her father knows not to dig in against her.

"She'll be crabby and short with me," Ed said. "I'll wonder, "What the heck got into her.' Then I'll remember, "Oh, yeah, it's game day. Better give her some space."'

Dani is just as unpleasant when a run is scored against her. She still says the first run scored on her this season was unearned.

"She can say that all she wants, but it was earned," Poetter said. "Still, if you can argue, much less remember, the only two runs you've allowed all year, I'd say you've had a pretty good season."

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 01:29:40]