All-American Flashback: Shelley Laird (1999-2002)
10/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
In honor of Alabama softball's 20th anniversary, rolltide.com will be catching up with our 20 former All-Americans in a series of feature interviews. Our third feature is on Shelley Laird (1999-2002), a two-time All-American pitcher who remains Alabama's career wins leader.
Shelly Laird was Alabama's first All-America pitcher, earning honors as a sophomore and junior in 2000 and 2001, respectively, posting back-to-back 30-win seasons. Laird, now Shelley Hlozek, was the Crimson Tide's third player from the state of Texas and it was the second player from the state, Kelly Askew, who along with Patrick Murphy helped push Hlozek to Tuscaloosa.
"It was all about Coach Murphy," Hlozek said. "He's probably the best recruiter in the country. I had a teammate, Kelly Askew, who was already committed to Alabama. Since she was already going there, that made it more appealing and Murphy recruited me and the rest is history."
Still in the program's infancy, Hlozek bought more into the Crimson Tide's future potential than its place in the softball landscape at the time. In fact, the landscape of its own stadium was in flux during her visit.
"The campus was amazing," Hlozek said. "They take you to the football game and you get to see everything. At that point, we didn't have our own softball stadium so we toured the baseball stadium in the hopes that it would one day be converted to a softball stadium. That was the plan, but even though it didn't work out that way we still got a really good stadium."
Hlozek had made her fair share of visits to other programs that already had softball stadiums to show, but the family atmosphere at Alabama proved second to none.
"I had a few other visits to some more established programs, but going to Alabama was a no-brainer," Hlozek said. "The way Murphy makes you feel like part of a family and the opportunity to be part of something brand new was what appealed about Alabama."
Hlozek and the Tide eventually found a home at the Alabama Softball Complex, now Rhoads Stadium, but her first year was spent at Sokol Park, which proved less than ideal to her outfield teammates.
"Fortunately, I only had one year at Sokol Park before we got the new stadium," Hlozek said. "That was an experience. Outfielders would be diving in the outfield and come up covered in ants because they fell on an anthill. The managers, Joey Harris and Erik Moller, would always have to go out and put up the breakaway fence before practice and games. I can't imagine how tedious that was. We didn't know any different though. It was a different time. We had just gotten our own field in high school so it wasn't very common to have an amazing stadium like they do now.
"That first game at the new park my sophomore year was amazing. They really put on a show. There was music playing and fireworks. It was surreal. The fact that they pack that place every game to this day is great. The fans there are amazing."
Her 2000 sophomore season remains one of the most impressive in school history, as she finished with a 38-7 record, including a school-record 37 complete games over 327.1 innings. Her 38 wins remained a single-season school record for over a decade until Jaclyn Traina surpassed it with 42 in the Tide's 2012 national championship season. Hlozek's record-setting sophomore season culminated in Alabama's first ever trip to the Women's College World Series.
"I think at the time, we didn't really know what to expect," Hlozek said. "We were just enjoying the moment since we were the underdogs. We were just happy to be there. Part of me wishes we took it more seriously but, looking back, I wouldn't have changed anything. It was an amazing experience and I'm proud to have been part of the first trip there."
Hlozek improved even more as a junior, earning NFCA All-America honors after finishing the year with a stellar 1.06 ERA, which ranks second all-time at Alabama. She holds Alabama career records in games started (142), complete games (118), shutouts (39), innings pitched (1054.2) and wins (115). Hlozek, Jaclyn Traina and Kelsi Dunne are the only pitchers in program history with over 100 career wins.
Hlozek now lives in the suburbs of Houston and works as an inventory planner for Men's Warehouse. She and her husband, Jerry, have two children, Hannah and Reese.
"I got married to my husband Jerry Hlozek in November of 2011," said Hlozek. "We actually went to the same high school but I didn't know him then since I went to a big school. We ended up being introduced in 2007 through mutual friends. I had my first daughter Hannah on Valentine's Day in 2013 and my second daughter Reese was born on Christmas Day of 2015."
As with every alumni over the program's 20-year history, the lessons learned while playing at Alabama always prove valuable long after the playing days are over.
"I have two young daughters," Hlozek said, "so one of the biggest things I remember Murphy saying is 'the sooner you realize it's not about you, the better off you'll be'. That couldn't be truer when it comes to life after softball. When you have two kids, you realize that there's more to life than just yourself."
