What separates some athletes from others may be their ability to expand their contribution to the team.
Take Jen Fried '04, for instance.
As the Diplomats’ softball team approached the 2004 season, F&M had one pitcher and were in need of another. Fried had done some pitching in high school but not at F&M.
“When we had doubleheaders, she stepped up as our pitcher for the second game,’’ said softball coach Ann Hughes. “Because she did that, the whole team rallied around her.’’
Fried showed she would be a four-season force for the Diplomats when she led the team in batting (.352 average) as a freshman in 2001, starting all 28 games. She also had 10 doubles and three triples.
That freshman year also started her run of being named to the All-Centennial Conference (CC) team, this time as a Second-Team selection, for four seasons.
A left-handed hitter, Fried picked up right where she had left off during her sophomore season, batting .381 and adding another dimension to her game by stealing 14 bases.
“You might not have thought she would be a base-stealer,’’ Hughes said. “She had a unique style. She was a smart baserunner and aggressive.’’
F&M finished 17-15 that season, which ended with a 1-0 loss to Alvernia in an ECAC playoff game. F&M had seven hits in that contest. Fried had three of them.
Before her junior season, Fried was contacted by the Israeli National Softball Team and invited to compete for a spot. At the time, she called the opportunity, “unimaginable.’’
Fried batted .422 as a junior and then .393 as a senior, a season that concluded with her being named the Centennial Player of the Year and an All-CC player for the fourth time (a First-Team pick three times).
She hit .386 for her career, which places her second on F&M’s career hitting list.
Fried also played goalkeeper for F&M’s women’s soccer team, which won an ECAC Championship in 2002.
“My recollection of Jen is that she was a coach’s dream player and a player’s dream teammate,’’ said women’s soccer coach Steve O’Day. “Jen was someone who played the game much like she approached her studies — she was analytical, paid great attention to detail, thought critically about how she could be the best player she could be and how she could best help her team. She was creative, and simply wouldn’t stop studying and working at her craft.’’
Fried, who was a member of the USA Softball Team that won gold at the 2005 Maccabiah Games, served as an assistant soccer coach at F&M following graduation. She was also an assistant athletic director at Husson University and Colgate University.
She counts her ECAC Playoff runs in both softball and soccer as some of her most memorable times at F&M. Fried is currently an accountant and working toward her CPA.
