Heidi (Bergstrom) Kelly and Lisa Schueler represent the battery for one of the two most successful eras in Blugold softball history.

Kelly, the pitcher, and Schueler, the catcher, played for JoEllen Bailey and Deb Steward from 1997 through 2000 when the team compiled a 144-53 overall record, won three conference tournament championships, amassed a 27-5 regular-season conference record and made four NCAA tournament appearances, finishing fourth in both 1999 and 2000. The 1998 and 1999 teams still hold the school records for wins in a single season with 40.

Kelly, a native of Austin, Minnesota, was a four-time All-Conference pick, a three-time All-Great Lakes Region first team selection and an NFCA third team All-American in 1999 and second team All-American in 2000. She was named to the 2000 NCAA finals all-tournament team, a tournament in which she pitched all 15 innings in a 3-2 elimination-game win over Roanoke.

Schueler, a native of Watertown, Wisconsin, was a three-time All-Conference pick, two-time All-Great Lakes Region first team selection, the conference division player of the year as a senior and an NFCA third team All-American in 2000. She was named to the 1999 NCAA finals all-tournament team when Eau Claire hosted the national tournament at Gelein Field in Carson Park.

Only nine softball players in school history have earned some kind of All-American recognition and only four have been a conference player of the year.

Kelly and Schueler served as Blugold co-captains for the 2000 season.

Kelly still holds the school record for innings pitched in a season with 214 2/3 in the 1999 season when she fashioned a 24-9 record with an 0.91 ERA. She is still the career leader in games started (88), complete games (68) and tied for the lead in shutouts (27). She is second in wins (74), appearances (108), innings pitched (628 1/3), ERA (1.34) and strikeouts (343).

Schueler has the fourth best single season average (.449) in school history, set during her senior season. Her career average of .387 ranks fourth and she is also ranked third in games played (188) and doubles (42), fourth in fielding percentage (.986) and hits (201) and fifth in RBI (114). She also ranks among the top 10 in several other single season and career categories.

Kelly was a Blugold Super Six Award Winner in 2000 and both she and Schueler were named to the WIAC All-Time softball team in 2012 as part of the conference’s Centennial celebration.

Kelly graduated cum laude in 2000 with a degree in biology and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in food science from Kansas State. She has been employed by Land O’Lakes since 2002 and has been a senior technologist since 2003. She was a member of the Foodservice K12 Team that won the Land O’Lakes President’s Award in 2010. She began her career as a lab technologist with the Parker Hughes Cancer Center.

Kelly and her husband Kyle, a corrections officer, have one child, Oliver, who is 7 ½ months old.

Schueler graduated magna cum laude in 2000 with a criminal justice major and spent one year as a Deputy Sheriff in Sauk County. She then entered the business world, serving as a Store Manager for Bruegger’s in Madison for one year. Since 2002, she has been employed by BMO Harris Bank, currently serving as Business Credit Analyst/Bank Officer in Monona after stints as Loan Servicing Manager and Operations Specialist.

Schueler was BMO Harris Bank’s United Way Loaned Executive in 2009. She has served on the United Way’s Loaned Executive Committee and was BMO Harris’ United Way Days of Caring Coordinator and Campaign Coordinator. She was also a BMO Harris ProCess Community Chair and March of Dimes Campaign Coordinator.  She also served on the Dane County Boys and Girls Club Building Winners Event Committee. She coached softball at Madison La Follette from 2006 through 2009, serving as a varsity assistant on the school’s 2007 state tournament team.

Return to Hall of Fame