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IllustrateD volume 24, issue 5 89 f and helped fine-tune her game. Hitting a baseball gave her better hand-eye coordination. She thinks it wired her dif- ferently, too, than some who grew up only playing softball. "I think that's why I have such a competitive and hard-driving mentality. Boys make you tough," she said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm a very emotional girl and very passionate about the game and passionate about my abili- ties, but I think that's why I get motivated differently than other people. That's why I don't think I try to be too high and too low because we all know it is a game of failure. You can't get too high on the highs and too low on the lows because if you get too high when you're doing well, you get humbled pretty fast." But she wasn't only working on her swing on the dia- mond. She also had the luxury of working inside, too, in the cruel Wisconsin winters. Gary Varsho built a massive shed near their house in Chili, Wis., with a pair of pitching ma- chines, one for baseball, one for softball, and it quickly be- came a favorite place for his oldest daughter. By the time she was in high school, Andie Varsho would get up at 5 a.m. and head to the cage every morning, drag- ging mom Kay with her to feed the machine. When Dad was around, he'd be in there, too, critiquing and adjusting Andie's mechanics. As someone who loves to think about the game, study the game and has so many tools at her disposal, Andie Varsho's mind can race before an at-bat, she said. But Dad has always been the one to slow her down. "He understands me better than I know myself," she said. He'll record her swing, analyze it and share his thoughts on where to make improvements, if they're needed. He's always preached what he learned as a coach, not a hitter: To not be afraid to hit with two strikes or go deep in the count, to get a good ball to hit. "She kind of fell into that philosophy, and it's worked out for her," Gary Varsho said. She's never complained about the hours spent in the cage — she actually called it "the best thing that's ever happened to us" — except maybe when she wasn't as pro- ductive as she'd like. That just meant more time spent tweaking, working, perfecting. "We've had so much fun walking from our house 100 feet over to the batting cage and the good times we've all had as a family in there working and working and getting it right," Gary Varsho said. "That to me was always one of the best parts of being a dad. She was a good student. She wanted to learn and wanted to get better. She's not satis- fied. 'I don't feel it today, I've got to keep working.' "It's not an accident that she's got that many hits." But Varsho hasn't only put in work with Dad. She's done so while on campus, too. But because she had such great teaching at home, Varsho admittedly was reluctant to open up to Purdue's hitting coaches. That is until DeFeo joined the staff last season. Like her dad, DeFeo got Varsho. With that trust in place, DeFeo was able to add another element to Varsho's already expansive hitting game — power. In Varsho's first two seasons at Purdue, she hit two home runs. In DeFeo's single season as her coach, Varsho hit five. "She helped me develop into a player that I didn't know that I was," Varsho said. "She was amazing. She said from Purdue Pride We're proud to be Illinois' largest HVAC contractor and to have 34 outstanding Purdue alumni on our HVAC/Plumbing team. DIGITAL REALTY DATA CENTER Hill is the mechanical contractor for construction and installation of a pre- fabricated cooling plant that supports the adjacent data center in Franklin Park, IL. The modular design accelerates the building schedule and minimizes costs. THE HILL GROUP hillgrp.com Warren Hill, ME '63 Jim Hill, MET '95, MBA '03 Jim Billard, LA '90 Brian Teyema, ME '87 Scott Dierking, IM '77 Russ Nelson, BCM '00 David Pikey, PH '97 Angela Billard, ED '90 Bill Silfies, MBA '03 Nick Muscolino, MET '06 Matthew Crawford, MET '05 Bob Hill, BCM '06 Ryan Stojkovich, BS '97 Mike Ivanovic, AS '81 Anthony Borgnini, ME '07 Anthony Camasta, MET '04 Beth Beigelbeck, SM '97 Deborah Toth, MET '07 Daniel Block, ME '08 Daniel Gasser, BS '04 Jason Jones, MET '08 Nick Johnson, BCM '09 Bryan O'Neill, BCM '09 Steven Sitkowski, BCM '10 Chris Summers, ME '10 Isaac Townsend, ME '10 Don Wunderlich, ME '13 Chris Gushurst, BCM '11 Taylor Spaulding, ME '12 Grant Fillipitch, MET '12 Jessica James, BS '13 Robert C Krier, MET '13 Joseph Ketcik, CE '13 Joseph Schraffenberger ME '13 G&B_GLOSSY_2013_HillGrp_finalQ6 8/13/13 2:57 PM Page 1