January 28, 2010

Dominant softball pitcher to be inducted into Tiger Hall of Fame

Known as one of the most successful junior college softball program’s in the country, the Cowley College softball team will have another one of its former players inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame.

Kristy “Buggy” (Davis) Loney, who was one of the first dominant players in the softball program’s successful history, will be inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb. 6. 

To Cowley head softball coach Ed Hargrove the honor was a long time coming.

“I thought she was the first building block of the program’s success we have had over the last 26 years,” Hargrove said. “I felt she should have been the first softball player to go in.”

Loney graduated from Arkansas City High School in 1984, where she was a member of the softball and cheer teams. ACHS did not have a softball team until her junior year of high school. Loney’s father, Carl Davis, along with Nick Rogers and Harold Tally (deceased) each helped get the softball program started at ACHS.

Prior to playing for her high school team, Loney played for teams sponsored by the Rodeo Meat Packing Plant.

Loney developed a strong work ethic at a young age as she and her father, Carl, were outside nearly every night as Loney would throw 1,500 pitches a day. The annual pitching session would not end until Loney threw nine straight strikes.

“I had found a passion that I loved and I was good at it,” Loney said.

Carl gave his daughter the nickname “Buggy” when she was a little girl.

“Because I used to bug him all the time,” Loney said.

Carl coached his daughter all the way from Pee-Wee League through college. Loney and her sister, Jody, who is one year older, played on traveling softball teams while growing up.

Loney chose Cowley over several other schools. After not pitching much in the fall exhibition schedule during her freshman year, Loney was considering transferring to another school.

At that time, Loney’s father, Carl, approached then head coach Doug Hunter and informed him the more his daughter pitches the stronger she gets. Thus, Hunter started to use Loney more on the mound.

Following the fall schedule, Hunter resigned as coach of the softball team and current head coach Ed Hargrove took over. As a freshman, Loney helped Cowley go 19-6 and capture its first conference title.
“Ed was a really good coach, he really brought the program up,” Loney said.

When Hargrove took over as softball coach he already knew of Loney, since she was a standout softball player at Arkansas City High School.

“I was thrilled she was on the team when I got the job,” Hargrove said. “She helped me a lot because I had never coached softball anywhere close to this level.”

As a sophomore, Loney led the nation in wins (28-8) in 1986 and helped the Lady Tigers capture the conference title and Region VI Championship. Her 28 victories stood as a school-record for 14 years.

Shortstop Lavonna Jacobs, who is also in the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame, served as the team’s backup pitcher in the rare occasion that Davis did not pitch during her sophomore season.

“She carried the load for us,” Hargrove said.

Davis’s 39 career wins was the most in the program’s history until 1998, and her 218 strikeouts remained a school-record until 1999.

“She was such a competitor, she had a refuse to lose, bulldog attitude,” Hargrove said. “She was the first dominant pitcher in our program, but you could never tell she was the star of the team.”

She also batted .356 with 58 runs batted in and 54 runs scored in her 67 career games as she was a two-time All-Conference and two-time All-Region VI player at Cowley.

When not pitching, Davis played third base for the Tigers.

“She was an all around, gritty player,” Hargrove said.

When Cowley won the Region VI Championship in 1986, Davis singled and made two aggressive plays on the base paths to help Cowley score two runs in the bottom of the 15th inning to win 5-4.

“Those plays probably won the game for us,” Hargrove said.

Davis’s play in the region title game was so inspirational that Hargrove has used her as an example to his some of his teams.

“Occasionally I will pull out that video to pump up our players for regionals,” Hargrove said.

Following her breakout season, Loney had several scholarship offers, with her two top choices being Arizona State and Florida State University. However, Loney ended up starting a family and gave up playing softball.

If she had continued playing softball, Carl was going to take his daughter for a tryout with the United States Olympic softball team.

“My priorities changed,” Loney said.

Loney went on to earn a cosmetology license and worked in that field for a while before going back to school to earn a degree in nursing.

“I always wanted to be a nurse,” Loney said. “My grandmother (Collette Zavala) was a nurse at the hospital years ago and I really looked up to her a lot. My mother (Carmen Davis) was also a nurse.”

Loney spent nine years working at the South Central Kansas Medical Center in Arkansas City before taking a job at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita working in TVICU and SICU trauma for three years.
She returned to South Central Medical Center about two and a half years ago and currently works as a surgical nurse.

She has fond memories of her time playing softball at Cowley.

“I loved being on the ball field, loved practice, pitching, and hanging out with the girls,” Loney said. “I had a really good time that year with Ed and the girls.”

Loney can remember only one time that her parents missed a game of hers in all the years she played softball. She credits her father, Carl, with helping her be successful in softball and in life.

“He gave me the mentality to go out and do my best at everything,” Loney said.

As for her upcoming induction into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame, Loney is looking forward to sharing the experience with her family.

“I am very honored they would choose me, it mean’s a lot to me and to my dad,” Loney said. “My dad was right by my side all those years. It will also be neat to share it with my kids. They know me as mom, but it will be fun for them to see I was a pretty good softball player at one point in time.”

Loney has two children and three step-children. Her daughter, Amanda-Marie Black 22, graduated from Cowley College and was a member of the CC Singers. She will graduate in May from the University of Kansas.

Loney’s other daughter, Ashley Black 19, is a pre-med major at Northern Oklahoma College and is a member of the school’s Roust About Singers.

Step-children are, B.J. Loney 25, Zac Loney 24, and Krystle Hathaway 23. She has one grandson, Princeton Navarro, three months old, and two step-grandchildren, Kylie Hathaway 7, and Brexton Hathaway 3.

Loney and her husband Brent, were married in June and reside in Ponca City, OK.