Notre Dame High School’s Kathrine Ball, seated second from right, announces her intention to throw for track and field for Mount St. Joseph University. Seated with Ball are, from left, father Chad Ball, mother Brandy Ball and sister Annabelle Ball. Standing is brother John Ball.
Paul Boggs | Daily Times
Notre Dame graduate Kathrine Ball captured the 2023 Southern Ohio Conference championship in both the girls shot put and discus throw.
Ed Litteral | Daily Times
PORTSMOUTH — Simply put, nothing was going to keep Kathrine Ball down.
No dislocated right knee suffered four times over, unfortunately no right hand, and not even her freshman season at Minford which was canceled because of the coronavirus threat.
That’s because Ball just kept bouncing back, just kept throwing for Notre Dame, and ultimately, just was bound and even hell bent to throw for track and field at the collegiate level.
“I was really determined to push myself as hard as I could to be better,” said Ball.
For Ball, she recently and officially announced her intention to throw at Mount St. Joseph University —an NCAA Division III program located an estimated 10 minutes from downtown Cincinnati.
The Lions are members of the Heartland Conference, as Mount St. Joseph —founded in 1920 by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati —is a private Roman Catholic university which enrolls over 1,800 undergraduate students and approximately 300 graduate students.
“Going from Notre Dame to there (Mount St. Joseph) is going to be about the same, maybe a little bit bigger. It’s a really small campus, and Notre Dame is a small school,” said Ball. “I went to a track meet there at the end of March and all of the teammates were extremely welcoming. As soon as I got there, I just felt like I was part of the family. St. Joe just felt right to me.”
In addition, Ball — who plans to major in Speech Language Pathology — said the Lions were an attractive program because of the coaching staff.
“At Notre Dame, we didn’t have throwing coaches,” she said.
Then again, Ball —who transferred to Notre Dame from Minford following her freshman year —was often times the single solitary thrower either the Titans or Lady Titans had.
She said she received interest from Wright State University and Columbia College in South Carolina, but that “I just knew St. Joe was it. How welcoming the team was…”
Speaking of welcoming, besides the shot put and discus, Ball said she will give the javelin a tryout or two —despite never throwing it before, in part because it is not offered by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
“They (MSJ coaches) are really open to beginners. If you are a thrower, they want you to try every single throwing event, even if you don’t like it. You never know until you try,” she said.
As for what she has thrown, she swept the Southern Ohio Conference championships in the girls shot put and discus as a senior —setting a school and personal record in the shot at a half-inch shy of 37 feet even (36 feet and 11 and one-half inches), and a personal-best 105 feet in the discus.
Those were increases from her SOC meet as a junior, in which she threw 32 feet and two inches for third-place in the shot — and 83 feet and one inch for fifth-place in the disc.
At that season’s Southeast District Division III meet at Northwest, Ball qualified for the regionals with a pair of then-PRs —99 feet and five inches in the disc and 32 feet and a quarter-inch in the shot.
She placed third in both events, as the top four placers in each event at the district meet advance to the regional meet.
And, ALL of that AFTER not one, not two, but unfortunately three dislocations of her right knee.
“Once as a sophomore and twice as a junior, now this is number four (once in senior season),” Ball explained.
But, Ball said physical therapy — and mental fight-through — allows her to return to the rings.
“Lots of physical therapy. As much as I can go and doing everything they say. Try to strengthen my quad muscles and everything around my knee,” she said. “At St. Joe, I will be fresh out of knee surgery and physical therapy. I am going to try and work my way up as best I can my freshman year.”
She said she is looking forward to her Lions’ career, and throwing injury-free while avoiding other setbacks.
Ball is the daughter of Chad and Brandy Ball, and the sibling of Annabelle Ball and fellow 2023 NDHS graduate John Ball.
Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @paulboggssports © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
