Could she have had a better first - and only - season playing softball at Seward County Community College?

Rio Rancho High School Class of 2005 member Jena Rue doesn't think so.

"I don't know; I probably could have - I could have hit better (for average). I was hitting like .480 until the last 14 games of the season, then I fell into a slump." In her lone season with the Saints - she's been signed to play the next three seasons at Eastern New Mexico University - she broke SCCC records for hits (86) and doubles (24) in a season while leading the team in batting average (.430) and extra-base hits (35). She also posted school records for doubles (23) and base hits (81), in addition to collecting five triples, six home runs, 60 RBIs and 15 stolen bases.

SCCC's record-setting season came to an end in the NJCAA Division I Region VI tournament championship game last month at Two Rivers Complex in Wichita Seward County had advanced to the title game for the third straight season after defeating Garden City Community College, 3-2 in the loser bracket final. The Lady Saints were then defeated 7-3 by Butler Community College in the championship game, for Butler's first-ever Region VI Tournament championship.

SCCC finished its season with a 49-13 overall record.

After being named as the Jayhawk West Conference's Freshman of the Year, Rue became the first Saint in the school's nine-year softball history to be named an All-American - and it happened twice.

First, Rue was named a National Junior College Athletic Association third team All-American infielder.

Then, only a few days after returning home to Albuquerque, Rue learned she'd been named to the prestigious Louisville Slugger All-American first team.

Rue, the most-decorated softball player in SCCC history, was among 15 players named to the National Fast-pitch Coaches Association's Louisville Slugger All-American first team.

The All-American honors were in addition to being named to first-team All-Conference and All-Region 6 teams.

"People were telling me before I'd be an All-American and I didn't think anything about it," she said. "(Of course), you try to be an All-American. But is it easy? No, not at all."

Rue said her varsity experience with the Rams, who won their lone state championship in 2003 when she was the starting second baseman, plus her days as a Sundancer, prepared her well for Seward County.

Paul Kohman, who was her coach for both teams, was "so good. He'd always preach we're gonna help you after you leave here and I didn't believe it. Paul and I argued all the time."

It's been a long road for Rue, 20, who started her college career at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, where she played in the fall semester before getting homesick and not playing in the spring, thus preserving her eligibility.

Although Liberal, Kans., isn't much closer to her home, the move to SCCC paid dividends, even though Rue is leaving after but one season.

"Most of my friends and most of the other starters of the nine of us - there were only three frosh altogether (were sophomores and had thus completed their careers there)," she said, when asked if she'd miss her teammates on the Saints. "All of the pitchers were sophomores."

Rue said she is still pursuing a degree in criminal justice but thinks she may want to be a coach someday. In Portales, she may be moving to shortstop for the Zias.

In spite of their tenuous existence together at RRHS, Rue said Kohman was one of the first to call and offer congratulations after she was named a third-team All-American.

"I had called him two weeks before I came home, after our regional tournament, and I called to see when they were going to play at state; I was going to go to that," she said. "He asked about my stats, told me maybe I'd be All-American. (When he heard I was third team) he told me I got gypped."

Then, when the Louisville Slugger honors were released, "He called and said, 'I'm so proud of you.'

"I had given him such a hard time - I (have since) figured out things didn't revolve around me

I told him I was sorry I gave him a hard time," she said.

Kohman, who's coached 13 or 14 All-Americans, said he thinks Rue is maturing. "Jena's a good kid but she just hasn't figured out how the world revolves yet."

Former Ram (Class of 2004) Christina Helland is an ENMU catcher; she red-shirted this season.