Vanessa Shippy’s first season of college softball started with an eye-opening trip to traditional NCAA power Arizona, and included a switch from getting on base as a leadoff hitter to trying to drive in runs from the No. 3 or 4 spot.

Hailey Jackson’s first season of college softball saw her team playing in the same league as the top two junior college teams in the nation.

It is experiences like that from the two former Lake City High standouts that Mike Chapman was trying to draw upon as he assembled his current coaching staff for the North Idaho Xtreme, a locally based youth travel softball club.

All told, six of the 10 coaches on the four Xtreme teams are current or recent college softball players, and a seventh has years of fastpitch coaching experience, after playing slowpitch in high school.

“The point I was trying to make in bringing these girls on is to get away from the ‘daddy coach’ a little bit,” said Chapman, who started the Xtreme in the fall of 2011. “I played baseball years ago (a 1992 Coeur d’Alene High graduate), and fastpitch is a lot different than baseball. … (I wanted to) get the girls that know what they’re doing to come out here and teach. I think our girls really look up to people like Vanessa and Shay (Craig) that have been Gatorade Players of the Year. I think they look up to them, and would listen to them maybe more so than they would to me.”

The Xtreme 18-and-under team is coached by Travis Smith and Sharyl Rasmussen (who played slowpitch at Coeur d’Alene High in the 1980s).

The 16U team is coached by Trey Ray, Hailey Jackson (freshman at Daytona State College in Daytona Beach, Fla., last season) and Ciera Lockwood (former East Valley High player, who played this spring as a freshman at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Wash.).

The older 14U team is coached by Chapman and Shay Craig (former North Idaho College player and current NIC assistant coach) and Vanessa Shippy (freshman at Oklahoma State this past season).

The younger 14U team is coached by Ashley Moon (who played at NIC and Kansas Wesleyan) and Amber Meyers (who played at NIC before shoulder injuries curtailed her career).

All four Xtreme teams will be in action this weekend, when the Xtreme hosts a tournament beginning today and running through Sunday at Finucane Park, Coeur d’Alene High and Canfield Middle School. A total of 25 teams from Idaho, Washington, Montana and Canada are expected to compete in three divisions.

RASMUSSEN, WHO graduated in 1984, played on two state “invitational” championship for the Vikings (state softball had yet to be sanctioned by the IHSAA) under coach Larry Schwenke. Sharyl DeMills, as she was known back then, played rover.

After graduating from college in 1989 (she played basketball at NIC), Rasmussen started the freshman softball program at Coeur d’Alene High.

“My last year of coaching, Larry Bieber (who just wrapped up a stellar 21-year career as the Vikings’ fastpitch coach) came on as my assistant,” Rasmussen recalled.

With the exception of a few seasons, Rasmussen has coached slowpitch, then fastpitch, since 1990. She coached her two daughters, Chelsey (a 2012 Coeur d’Alene High grad) and Kylie (a senior on this year’s state 5A runner-up Viking team) as they were growing up.

“I learned along with the kids. I coached my own kids on KGSA teams all the way through,” Rasmussen said. “I’ve always been a baseball fan, it’s pretty much the same.

“Softball is a passion I grew up with, and I think my kids just caught the fever, just from my passion.”

MOON PLAYED at University High in Spokane Valley, then played two years at NIC (2011 and ’12), then two more at Kansas Wesleyan. She graduated in December and moved back to the valley. Ashley and her sister, Jessica, own a crepe cafe business and bring their product to farmers markets.

“It’s so awesome,” Ashley said of giving back as a coach. “Amber and I talked about this the other day — you look back at your past and when you think about mentors and our minds automatically go to the great coaches that we’ve had. So that’s what made us want to coach these 14U girls — we want to show a good mentor not only for softball but also for life lessons.”

Moon played first base in college.

“It’s actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be,” Moon said of coaching, “but sometimes I have the mindset where I feel like I’m just talking around in circles. So I don’t know if I’m being completely clear with them, but it’s not as difficult as I thought.”

MEYERS CAME to NIC from Skyview High in Billings, Mont. A center fielder at NIC in 2012 and ’13, Myers dislocated her left shoulder swinging at an inside pitch, then tore up her other shoulder diving into first base.

Those injuries put whatever plans she had of playing after NIC to rest.

“It’s just a new perspective, playing for 16 years, then coaching these young girls, it’s just a whole new perspective on the game,” Meyers said. “It’s a whole new love for the game, actually. You love the game playing all those years, and then it’s even more fun being able to teach what you know to kids … it’s very rewarding.”

Meyers has been coaching with the Xtreme since the fall. Moon joined her once she got home from college in December. The two complement each other.

“Ashley conveys what she wants easier than I do, she’s the talker … and I’m more of a show-er,” Meyers said.

JACKSON STARTED the season at third base at Daytona State, played a few games at first base, and usually hit fifth in the lineup. She hit .256.

She said the hardest thing to get used to was the reality of the distance between Coeur d’Alene and Florida.

“Everyone I played with, they’re local, so they could go home on the weekends and on holidays, and I had to get used to not seeing my parents for half a year,” Jackson said. “I was the only one who had to take a plane to get to college.”

Jackson was able to get home twice during the school year, at Thanksgiving and at Christmas.

One benefit to living in Daytona Beach — going to the Daytona 500 in February. She was able to stand near the finish line, in the stands.

“It was crazy,” she said. “When I stood next to the cars it pushes you backwards, because of the wind.”

Last fall, she helped her coach at Daytona with some camps around Florida, and that whetted her appetite for coaching. When Ray asked her last winter about coaching, she was all in.

“It’s a good experience because I’m glad I can show younger girls what I learned in college, and to get them used to the college experience before they grow up and play in college,” Jackson said. “I want these girls to be really successful, and for me to help them out is just an honor. I hope they can grow up and play college ball and love it as much as I did.”

SHIPPY PLAYED on an Oklahoma State team that started five freshmen in its opener, had only two seniors on the roster — and saw its coach (Rich Wieligman) fired at the end of the 21-31 season.

“It was tough … he and I are still close, and I’m going to be forever thankful for the opportunity that he gave me to play college softball, and making my dreams come true,” Shippy said.

She said the move wasn’t enough to make her think of transferring.

“No, I’m in love with the school,” Shippy said. “The coach was part of my decision in going there, but the school, the business program, the hometown feel, everything, is why I picked the school. I’m excited to go back, and hopefully turn the program around.”

Shippy, who led off most of the time at Lake City, hit No. 3 or No. 4 for Oklahoma State most of the season. She batted .306, third on the team, hit three home runs and drove in 28 runs, second on the team.

“It was really weird,” she said. “I was more of a hitter than a triple-threat kind of player, which I missed; I hope I can get back to it. But that’s what the team needed. It definitely took a lot of getting used to, being more of a power hitter. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m back in the leadoff spot next year.”

Shippy coached on the Xtreme 14U squad last year as well, along with Craig.

“Coaching is something I want to do in the future,” Shippy said. “Getting the experience and getting the relationships with these girls and their parents has been eye-opening for me. I love coming out here and giving back to the game, and giving back to the young girls of the community. It’s really uplifting.

“It’s meant a lot to me to know that I came from a small town in Idaho, and made it to college, and it’s nice to come out and show that you don’t have to be from California or Texas or a big softball area to go make it big. These kids are realizing it, and they’re working their butts off. It’s cool to be able to be a role model for the kids.”

CRAIG RECENTLY completed her third season as assistant coach at NIC.

“Vanessa teaches me something new every single day,” Craig said. “The one thing that I’ve learned from Vanessa is she’s such a great coach and she understands the game and she breaks it down. It’s so easy to tell the girls to do something, but when you break it down and show them, and you can actually example it … that’s something that will make Vanessa so much more successful in her coaching career.”

Craig graduated from Timberline High in Boise in 2006, played two seasons at NIC, then two more at Adelphi University in Long Island, N.Y., before returning to Coeur d’Alene as a Cardinal assistant under Don Don Williams, who started the NIC program in 1998.

In high school, Craig originally signed to play at Idaho State, but changed her mind and came to NIC.

“I just kind of went with my gut,” she said. “I wanted to be able to develop, and get the playing time, and I had an awesome career at NIC … and I’m a much better player because of it.”

As most of the other coaches are younger than Craig, the players refer to her as “the senior coach.”

“I’m so fortunate to go to work every day, knowing that I’m ‘stuck’ on the softball field,” Craig said. “I love my job and I love who I work with and I love the community and I love my school. And I love to be able to give back to not only the college players, but the youth as well.

LOCKWOOD BECAME involved with the Xtreme last fall when her little sister, Riley Thompson, tried out for and eventually made the 16U team.

Smith noticed Lockwood wearing a Bellevue shirt at the tryout, struck up a conversation, and one thing led to another … and soon she was an Xtreme coach.

“I think it’s super helpful to pass your knowledge down,” said Lockwood, a pitcher. “And it’s really nice to connect with those who love the same sport that you’ve loved for all of your life, and kind of share that love and wisdom, so they can do the same when they get older.”