Donna (Spence) Katcher

The storied history if girls softball in the Lehigh Valley begins with the 1975 Parkland High team, the area's first state champs. The heart and soul of those original PIAA champions was the team's catcher, Donna (Spence) Katcher.

In 1975, as a junior, she hit .455 in the regular season, .33 during districts, and an amazing .600 in the state tournament when she was also flawless defensively. Fittingly, in a dramatic battle against Coatesville in the state finals, Spence delivered the game-winning hit to cap the Trojans amazing three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh for a 4-3 win.

Senioritis didn't slow down "Speedy" Spence in 1976 as she hit .563 and led the team back to District 11 finals in her final scholastic season. Parkland won the local umpire's "Sportsmanship Award", an honor attributed to Spence's class and leadership behind the plate.

But her legacy continued well beyond Orefield...

In 1979, she helped the Patriot Queens finish third in the ASA Class A National Tournament. She moved over to the Lehigh Valley Panthers and led them to a second place finish in the 1982 ASA Class AA Central Atlantic Regional in Washington DC.

She continued to serve the sport as a coach in the early 80s at Allen High School and was an assistant coach at Allentown College in 1984. She also served for many years on the Carole Weil Memorial Scholarship committee and she's still a leader today as she wages her fight against ALS.

"Donna lives with ALS quietly, gracefully, and heroically," said her Parkland High coach Marcia Thomas.

In a recent ALS charity drive held here in the Lehigh Valleey, her teammates - calling themselves "Donna's Dugout" - rallied around their captain and raised $10,000; nearly one-seventh of the total funds raised in the entire Lehigh Valley. It was a testimony to the respect, admiration, and love Spence has and will always have within the local softball communtiy.