W-F graduate heading to Seton Hall
By Greg Seubert
Not even COVID-19 can keep Cadyn Ehrenberg from her dream of playing Division 1 college softball.
The 2018 Weyauwega-Fremont High School graduate is taking her skills from Rock Valley College to Seton Hall University.
Ehrenberg recently accepted a scholarship offer from Seton Hall after her second season at Rock Valley was cut short this spring because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“It’s a pretty big deal because you don’t hear very many stories from kids around here having these opportunities,” she said. “It’s pretty cool to have a small-town kid get to actually fulfill their dream.”
Ehrenberg helped Rock Valley, a two-year community college in Rockford, Illinois, win its sixth straight National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championship last May by posting a 17-4 record as a freshman pitcher with 95 strikeouts in 126 innings and a 1.78 ERA.
Those numbers caught the eye of coaches at Seton Hall, located in South Orange, New Jersey.
“My coaches were kind enough to give a good word,” Ehrenberg said. “The way this scholarship happened is our assistant coach knows the assistant coach at Seton Hall, so there was a connection. In this game, it’s more about who you know than what you know.”
Ehrenberg and the Golden Eagles played about 20 of their scheduled 60 games this season before COVID-19 ended the season and school year.
She wasn’t concerned that a shortened season would keep her from getting a scholarship.
“I was fortunate to get recruited before this whole virus happened,” she said. “I already had the option, I just had to make the decision. I was fortunate enough to not have to rely on the season to get exposure.”
Ehrenberg helped lead Weyauwega-Fremont to the WIAA Division 3 state championship game in 2017 as a junior and to the Division 4 semifinals the next year as a senior.
Todd Breuer coached those teams and is now coaches River Ridge High School in Patch Grove.
“Coach Breuer was very much a mental toughness guy,” Ehrenberg said. “He preached that day in and day out. At Rock Valley, it was more of a mental game than a physical game. They can only train you so much unless you have the mentality that you want to win. I’m very grateful for the coaches that I had giving me the mentality that you don’t quit until you have what you want. That’s a very big part of it. I had a meeting with my coaches (at Seton Hall) and they talked about mentality. They didn’t talk anything about practice. They just said, ‘We need this mentality out of all of our players.’”
Ehrenberg visited Seton Hall in January.
“At first, I was like, ‘Oh boy, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this,’” she said. “It is daunting because you’re so far away from everything that you know, but it’s also good to have the experience of being away. If I don’t like it, I can always come back. That’s the mentality I’m going into it with. I’m just going to go with it and not think about it too much. I’ll find friends and have a home base there.”
The Pirates are looking to use Ehrenberg as a pitcher and she’ll have three years of eligibility.
“As of right now, I’m a pitcher only,” she said. “I don’t want to say I have a spot. I’ll be competing to be in the rotation. I know it’s definitely going to be a challenge adjusting to much more talented hitters. It’s going to be a mentality adjustment for sure. I have to be more accepting of failure because it’s going to happen a lot more.”
IUPUI in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Seton Hall were the two Division 1 programs that showed interest, according to Ehrenberg.
The choice ended up being easy.
“They’re very competitive in the Big East,” Ehrenberg said of the Pirates. “They’re one of the top three teams in the conference, from what I’m hearing. They’ve had pretty successful teams in the last few years. Their coaches are very nice and know what they’re talking about. They were very upfront and didn’t hide anything from me. They expressed that they really wanted to go there. All the girls were super-nice to me. I had a good feeling about it on my visit.”
The recruiting process was easier a second time, Ehrenberg said.
“When I went through the recruiting process in high school, it was very different,” she said. “My family had never done it before. We kind of went in blind and didn’t know what to expect. I reached out to people, but it wasn’t super-intense or anything. At Rock Valley, it was a lot easier because they know people.”
Her goal was to play two seasons with the Golden Eagles and transfer to another school.
“I went there with the mentality of, ‘I’m going to get better and I’m going to make myself as marketable as possible and then I’m going to go to the school that I feel would fit me the best,’” she said. “I’m just really thankful for all my coaches, family and friends that helped me get to this point.”