1.02.2012

Digital Scrapbook: My Friend Kris

One of my best friends during high school, college, and life, is Kris Fremo (née Gorman). We met around the ninth grade, but really started chillin' in the tenth grade when we both started singing with the Master's Touch. Kris and I hung out a lot–playing Nintendo (Dr. Mario), baking cookies, watching TV, and just plain having fun. Wow–that seems like forever ago.


Kris was a standout athlete in high school and college. She was the starting goalie for the Apollo High School girl's soccer team and was also a phenom softball pitcher. She continued her softball career with St. Ben's.


In 1998, I was teaching at ROCORI high school and coaching the ninth grade girl's soccer team at Apollo High School. Kris had just started a girl's soccer program at Saint John's Preparatory School. We joined forces the following year at St. John's when the team had it's first official season as a varsity sport. Over the next few years that team got better and better.



Blazer's pitcher Gorman doesn't let back pain slow her down
Senior pitcher Kris Gorman delivers during the
first game  of St. Benedict's double-header
with St. Mary's Wednesday in St. Joseph. The Cardinals swept 5–4 and 2–1.
St. Benedict junior had off-season surgery and is 4-1 this year


By Tom Larson
Times Sports Writer

St. Benedict softball pitcher Kris Gorman didn't dare grimace, even as the pain-shot through her body every time she planted her foot and swung her arm through her delivery.

Four members of her family already had undergone back surgery to repair herniated discs, and before last season the condition of her back began to worsen too.

But wIth her Blazers teammates in the middle of a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship race and seeking a spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs, it wasn't the time to make a big deal about it.

"It wasn't something I wanted competitors to know," said the junior out of St. Cloud Apollo High School. "You don't want them to have any kind of edge."

In fact, some of Gorman's teammates weren't fully aware that even bending down to field ground balls was a painful chore.

"It bothered me before the season, during and after," she said. "Between
innings-and I don't think people really knew what was going on-I'd try to lie down to stretch out, even though it never really helped. It affected everything I did, my stride when I pitched. I'm surprised everything worked out like it did."

And, after off-season surgery, things appear to be working out well once again.

Entering today's scheduled doubleheader against Concordia, Gorman is 4-1
and has led St. Benedict to a 6-3 record. This despite the fact that poor weather and new construction on the building where the team's batting cages used to be have limited the Blazers to very little hitting practice.

Gorman this weekend earned a 6-5 victory in the first game of a doubleheader against Bethel, then entered later in the second game and got the win in a 5-4 Blazers victory decided in the ninth inning.

The results this season haven't been much difference than they were last season when Gorman was 14-5 with a 1.71 earned-run average for the 27-9 Blazers, which won its second straight MIAC title (with co-champion St. Thomas) before losing in the first round of the Division III playoffs.

How she's doing it has changed significantly, head coach Denny Johnson said.

"Her flexibility last year was bad, and she just gutted it out," Johnson said. "Kris is a competitor and the worse it got, the more she beared down."

Gorman had back problems before, but they reappeared the fall of her
sophomore year. As the condition worsened, she took cortisone shots to try control it, but the injections didn't work. She was having trouble sitting through classes, much less throwing a softball.

After making it through the season, she had surgery on June 3. She wasn't allowed to do much for three months, and that meant needing a lot of help coaching her youth softball team last summer.

Gorman took part in rehabilitation and walked, but wasn't permitted to run until November. She got behind in her usual off-season workouts, but believes the inactivity was more important.

"It hasn't bothered me so far, and I hope it stays that way," Gorman said. "I did a lot of rehabilitation and I think it helped that I didn't do anything for a long time."

The surgery hasn't dramatically affected the physical aspects of her game, but it has made it easier mentally, she said.

"I'm more able to focus on the game than focus on not thinking about my back," Gorman said. "I can think about my control, the little things."

And there's one other little thing Johnson is glad to see. "I'm amazed at what Kris was able to do," Johnson said. "This year, when she stretches out, she's smiling."


Kris is also über-smart


Gorman earns all-academic honor


College of St. Benedict junior softball pitcher Kris Gorman was named to the GTE-CoSIDA District V All-Academic team. Gorman, a former St. Cloud Apollo star, had a 13–5 record, four saves and a 1.43 earned-run average this season. She has a 3.93 grade-point average this season and is an art education major.


Kris Gorman, daughter of Urban and Rose Gorman, St. Cloud, and Kathleen Noonan, daughter of Michael and Judith Noonan, St. Cloud, have been inducted into the 1995 Delta Epsilon Sigma Omega Chapter, a national Catholic honor society for women at the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph.


Gorman gets career win No: 47 despite missing suspended game

NORTHIFIELD - St Benedict pitcher Kris Gorman picked up her 47th on Sunday without coming anywhere close to a softball diamond.

Kris Gorman
GETS WIN NO. 47
Gorman, who missed the Blazers' season-ending series at Carleton because she had her senior voice recital, was the pitcher of record in a suspended game that was halted after four innings on Thursday. On Sunday, the Blazers played the final inning of the game, completing a 20-3 victory. St. Benedict then won the second game of the doubleheader 10-0.

Gina Shields led the way offensively, going 3-for-4 with four runs while driving in four others in the first game. Angie Rademacher was 3-for-4 in the second game.

"We can finish no worse than second, and we can possibly tie for first," Blazers coach Dennis Johnson said. "But we dug ourselves too deep a hole early in the season to get an NCAA bid."


Kris taught art at Saint John's Preparatory School. This picture appeared in the St. Cloud Times sometime in the mid-nineties. Look at how big that computer is!


College of St. Benedict senior Kathryn Kluver (center) showed fellow students her art project on one of the college's Macintosh computers. The other students are (from left) Jennifer Borovsky, Stephanie Lavinger, Allison Keable and Kris Gorman.



Kris married Dave Fremo, another Master's Touch alum. Here is their wedding announcement. Eventually I may get a photo or two from her wedding posted. I was in the wedding party and had two dates to that event–Angela and Lisa, who were also in the wedding party.



Gorman–Fremo

Gorman–Fremo


Erv and Rosee Gorman, 1122 31st Ave. N, St. Cloud, announce the engagement of their daughter Kris, to David Fremo, son of Dennis and Leann Fremo, 513 Brookwood Lane, Sartell.

Gorman is a 1996 graduate of College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, with a bachelor of art degree in art education. She is employed by St. John's Preparatory School, Collegeville.

Fremo is a student at St. John's University, Collegeville, and plans to graduate in May with a bachelor of art degree in christian music and production.

A June 19 wedding is planned.



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