By Spencer Gonzales
The start to the Wausau Ignite’s inaugural season has been nothing short of thrilling. Fans packed the stands for the home opener against the La Crosse Steam on June 10th, and have since stayed loud and rowdy for the newest addition to Northwoods League Softball.
Amongst the crowd’s cheers and chants, there’s a voice on the field that never fails to cut through the noise of Athletic Park. Whether it’s a defensive callout in the infield, a chirp from the dugout, or just a simple “Good pitch!” to her pitcher in the circle, Riley Schwisow is constantly communicating.
Riley is the talkative type anywhere she is, but when it’s her time to step to the plate, she isn’t afraid to let the bat do the talking. Through just under a month of play in the Northwoods League, Schwisow is batting an impressive .371 average, with 12 RBI and a team-leading four home runs and nine extra-base hits. Even with the fast start to her career in the Northwoods League, the rising junior feels she has a ways to go.
“On the field, I still feel like I have something to prove,” Riley said when asked what she wants out of the summer.
As a natural competitor, she sees every at-bat as an opportunity to go yard. Multiple times this season, she has been visibly frustrated when not given a pitch in the zone.
Riley awaits a pitch against the Minot Honeybees at Athletic Park.
“I’m like, gosh dang it, give me a strike! Like, let me hit, let me swing at this, you know? Even if I ground out to the pitcher, I want to swing! Let’s go, come at me!”
She attributes this fiery attitude to her upbringing in the small town of Beatrice, NE, where she grew up around family and friends who constantly pushed her. Riley was a three-sport star in high school, lettering in softball, basketball, and track. She was named all-conference multiple times on the diamond and the court while also qualifying for state in the 4×100 relay and 100-meter hurdles on the track, all while being the co-valedictorian of her graduating class.
Riley was constantly competing, most times against her loved ones, to be the best. She grew up with four siblings who all excelled in academics and athletics, which fostered sibling rivalries between her and her sisters.
“My older sister was just incredibly intelligent, and I hated that. I wanted to be smarter than her. She was playing all these sports, so I wanted to be better than her at all these sports,” she said about her oldest sister, Whitney, whom she has looked up to her whole life. Riley was fortunate enough to play a year of high school sports with Whitney when she was a freshman and with her younger sister Callie when she was a senior. She would battle with her siblings in practice for playtime, and of course, pride.
The ever competitive Schwisow admits that her sisters may have her beat in one sport, soccer, but when it comes to softball and basketball, she believes she has the upper hand.
“[In] basketball, I beat up on my big sis at practices… [my] little sister, she’ll never be better than me at basketball, you can put that on the record, for real,” Riley playfully boasted.
Her sisters weren’t the only ones who gave Schwisow the drive to succeed. She credits her close friend from school, Avery Barnard, as one of her biggest driving forces to win.
Riley gets fired up with the dugout after hitting a triple against Minot.
“We just competed against each other so hard in the classroom, on the field, on the track. We were teammates, but more than anything, we were competitors, and we would just push each other.”
Avery played every sport that Riley did, and raked in just as many accolades, including all-conference and state selections in softball and basketball and state qualifications in track. Even as the competition got more intense through the years, Schwisow and Barnard helped each other to reach new heights.
“We hated each other at some points, but like, wow, if I did not play against that girl, I don’t think I would be where I am now.”
That rivalry worked out well for the two friends in the end, as both went on to play DI softball, Riley at Northwestern State in Louisiana, and Avery at Creighton in Nebraska.
Riley has seen success on every stage of softball, but when she first made the jump up to the college level, she felt out of place. The coaching staff at the school she had committed to left right before she arrived in the fall, leaving her with a new staff that didn’t fit her needs.
“I am a very positive person… but that was not the culture I wanted to be in. So that was hard.”
It was a struggle for Schwisow not to feel like she fit in, all while being away from home for the first time in her life. Through it all, she was named a DII freshman midseason All-American and entered the transfer portal in the offseason to go to Northwestern State. She found a good fit with coaches Jenny and Brad Fuller, and led the Lady Demons in home runs in her first season on the team.
Through the ups and downs of her career, she has always leaned on her father, Roy, for advice, guidance, and inspiration.
“He’s my biggest supporter… he doesn’t let me take a day off, take a pitch off… Having someone in your corner that is solely focused on you and all you’re doing, it’s nice.”
Roy and Riley have called throughout the summer to discuss her performances with the Ignite, which has helped her adjust her approach and stay connected with her father and family in Nebraska, who watch every game.
Even with her intense competitive edge and fiery approach, to Riley, softball is about more than just winning: it’s about the people.
Riley is greeted by young softball players as her name is announced in the starting lineups.
“One thing that I will cherish about this sport is the women that I have met. Everywhere I’ve gone, just some special people. Coaching staff, everyone around the sport, our interns here. The support staff at colleges and travel ball teams in high school. I’ve met some of the most incredible people who have inspired me and have made me into the person I am today. That is something I will never take for granted.”
Schwisow looks to play softball for as long as she can, and then hopes to one day coach both basketball and softball.
“I want to milk out my softball career as much as I can. And then, once I have to, once they make me hang up the cleats, then I want to go into the coaching realm.”
Her goal is to give student athletes an experience similar to hers, filled with special people, hard work, and, of course, boatloads of competition.
No matter where she has played, Riley has worked tirelessly to make her voice heard and her talent seen, and is always in search of the next pitch to send over the fences.
