Softball has taken Blake Hoorelbeke-Maser far, far away from lil’ Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Clear across the country to play college softball.

All the way to Europe to play professional ball.

And now, in the past year, it has brought her right back here, to give back to a community which was so good to her when she starred at Coeur d’Alene High more than a decade ago.

In the summer of 2010, Hoorelbeke-Maser started up the Northwest Fastpitch Academy, in which she teaches pitching to young girls, mentors them and helps them pursue opportunities in college softball.

She and her husband, Keith Maser, live in Spokane with his 5-year-old son, Keith Jr. Blake has a “day” job as a supervisor at a sports bar at Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights. On her two days off, she travels to Coeur d’Alene to give pitching lessons as part of her fastpitch academy.

Actually, Blake Hoorelbeke-Maser IS the company. Imagine that.

“This is just something, I felt, was a way for me to give back, pay it forward,” said Hoorelbeke-Maser, now 29. “I lived in this community, not only as a regular person but as an athlete, and this community supported me so much, and my endeavors, and my family, that I felt this was a way for me to take this blessing I’ve had for softball and pay it forward, and bring it back to the community that gave me so much in my life.”

IN 2000, Hoorelbeke-Maser left Coeur d’Alene High after helping the Vikings win two state titles and one runner-up trophy at state. The first state title, in 1998, came after Coeur d’Alene lost its first game at state, then won six straight games over two days with Blake, as a sophomore, in the circle to capture the title. From that tourney, Hoorelbeke-Maser is still in the state record book for most innings pitched (46 2/3), appearances (7) and wins (6). She’s also in the record book for lowest ERA in a tournament (0.25, in 1999 and 2000).

For her Viking career, Hoorelbeke-Maser was 73-16 with a 1.16 ERA, with 683 strikeouts in 574 innings pitched.

Recruited by four-year schools, Hoorelbeke-Maser opted to attend Seminole Community College in Sanford, Fla., in part for smaller classes a junior college offers, as well as the chance to play right away.

Two years later, with four-year schools including Texas, Georgia, Syracuse and New Mexico State offering full rides, Hoorelbeke-Maser opted to stay in Florida, and signed with Stetson, a private Division I school in DeLand, Fla.

“I don’t know why I stayed, and after the first few couple of weeks, I’m like, ‘What am I doing here? Why didn’t I go somewhere else?’” she recalled. “But the way life unfolds, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

At Stetson, Hoorelbeke-Maser won 46 games in two seasons, pitched three no-hitters and a perfect game, struck out 366 in 404 1/3 innings, and hit 23 home runs. And while with the Hatters, she apparently made an impression on the coach from the University of South Florida — who at the time was an assistant coach on the USA national team.

“A contact called him out of the Netherlands and said they were looking for a utility player, someone who could hit, play the field and possibly pitch. He gave them my name,” Hoorelbeke-Maser said.

In the fall of 2004, after she had exhausted her college eligibility and was finishing up work on her degree at Stetson, she joined a club team from the Netherlands for a tournament in Barcelona.

Hoorelbeke-Maser graduated from Stetson on May 8, 2005, and the following day, was on a plane back to Europe. She played four seasons for three club teams in the Netherlands.

“It was insane my first year over there,” she said. “Coming from college, I was used to playing seven days a week, and you go over there and you practice once, maybe twice a week, and then you play on weekends. So I had to figure out how I could be as good as I was in college — three days a week, because everyone over there works; it (softball) was a hobby.”

So what did she do in her free time?

“I worked out, I hung out, I went shopping,” she said. “I found a part-time job as a bartender at one of my sponsors.”

She said the pro softball season in the Netherlands begins in late April, and goes until October. They take a 6-7 week break during the season so the country’s national team can play in tournaments.

Hoorelbeke-Maser lived in Amsterdam for more than four years, coming home only for Christmas.

“I loved it,” she said of her time overseas. “I’ve been to Italy twice, been in the Czech Republic, I’ve been to Barcelona ... I went to the Olympics. It was awesome.”

But by the end of 2008, Hoorelbeke-Maser said she “needed to find out who I was again. I barely spoke English anymore ... I taught myself Dutch. They wanted me to come back, but I had already met my husband (a therapist in the Air Force who was living in Tampa), and I said you don’t have that much money for me to bring him.”

She moved back to Florida, worked as an assistant coach at Seminole, then moved to Tampa and worked for a woman giving pitching lessons.

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘I can do this. I can create my own pitching academy,’” Hoorelbeke-Maser said. “So I just randomly called Larry Bieber (her high school coach, who is still the coach at Coeur d’Alene) and I asked him if he thought there was a need for a good pitching coach up here.”

She brought her husband out here for a visit, and in 2010, they moved here.

GETTING ESTABLISHED as a new pitching instructor in the area wasn’t easy, despite her history here. After all, most of the girls she could be teaching would have been in diapers when she was in high school.

Her big break came in October when a parent of a local pitcher, unhappy with the development of another pitcher in the area, called Blake up and asked if she could give a lesson to this pitcher.

“I’ve worked with her since October and slowly but surely, another one’s come and another one’s come,” Hoorelbeke-Maser said. “Now I’m out here (at Ramsey Park) on my two days off.

“It was tough in the beginning, but I just felt God was pushing me in this direction to do this.”

She now mentors and teaches nearly a dozen pitchers.

Her brothers, Jesse and Casey, have remained in baseball since leaving Coeur d’Alene. Jesse plays for the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks of the Independent League; Casey recently left the club.

Her parents, Peter and Dabar, moved back to California in 2002 but moved back to Spokane in 2009. Peter Rivera, the former lead singer and drummer for Rare Earth, is still singing — as part of Peter Rivera Unplugged, with himself, a guitarist and a keyboardist. The band is scheduled to play at Pig Out in the Park in Spokane on Sept. 4.

Hoorelbeke-Maser got by with a fastball and changeup and an intimidating physical presence in high school. She said she might have had a lesson or two growing up, but pretty much taught herself. She learned the other pitches after she left for college.

She last pitched in her college alumni game in 2009. She says she could still throw if she needed to, and does on occasion when demonstrating during her lessons.

“The world of softball is evolving, and it’s got to evolve here, in order for the girls to have a chance,” Hoorelbeke-Maser said. “I’m not saying the other coaches don’t know what they’re doing, but I have physically lived it — not 30 years ago, but recently. I could pick up a ball and pitch a whole game right now.”

Ideally, in 3-5 years, Hoorelbeke-Maser said she would own a large hitting facility, with a regulation-size infield, along with areas to pitch, etc.

She even said if she could, she would teach all day, every day, for free.

“I am just so, so blessed with the fact that I’m able to do this,” she said. “After one lesson, there’s so much excitement, not only in the girls’ eyes, but in the parents’ eyes — finally, someone gets it. ... To be able to come up here, even if I only worked with one girl, until she graduated from high school, if I could help her not only as a pitcher but as a person, that would mean the world to me. This opportunity has been a huge blessing in my life.”