Kadena freshman Kara Davis pitches during softball practice Tuesday at Chibana Recreation Area, just outside of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. The Panthers are open of the DODDS-Pacific teams converting from slowpitch to fastpitch this season. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)

Kadena freshman Kara Davis pitches during softball practice Tuesday at Chibana Recreation Area, just outside of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. The Panthers are open of the DODDS-Pacific teams converting from slowpitch to fastpitch this season. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)

Assistant coach Tony Davis talks to Kadena softball players on Tuesday. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)

Lindsey Davis arrived at Kadena High School last year and the softball player hoped the game would change from slowpitch to fastpitch. Her wishes came true Saturday.

The switch, which Department of Defense Dependents Schools officials say was requested by students, is taking place for DODDS leagues in South Korea and Okinawa. Coaches and players say the fastpitch game will help players’ futures.

“It’s a more quick, fast-paced game,” said Davis, who played seven years for traveling youth teams in Nebraska before coming to Kadena and hopes to play fastpitch at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. “And it helps you go further if you want to play competitively in college.”

The move on Okinawa gives Kadena and rival Kubasaki a chance to play other teams besides each other. This season, four DODDS teams from Korea and two from Okinawa will compete in fastpitch softball.

“This year, we have three Japanese teams; last year it was just us,” Kadena coach Joe Ware said. “That’s the good thing about it.”

The decision about which area plays fastpitch or slowpitch is decided by each district, said DODDS-Pacific’s Far East Activities Council chair Don Hobbs.

And not everybody is along for the ride. The DODDS-Japan League is the only one in the area that plays slowpitch.

Bonnie Seeley, Yokota’s athletic director and softball coach, was one of the leading proponents of keeping DODDS-Japan’s status quo.

Seeley believes more players benefit from slowpitch, a “lifetime sport,” and that the superb player who could merit a fastpitch scholarship is rare to nonexistent in the Pacific.

“Fastpitch is a pitcher-and-catcher’s game. In slowpitch, everyone’s involved. Everybody can be a good player,” she said.

But even long-time proponents of slowpitch, such as Ware, recognize fastpitch’s prominence.

“You really need that on your college transcript,” Ware said.

Compounding the problem for Okinawa teams is that Kadena and Kubasaki are not full-fledged DODDS teams.

The Okinawa league, which got off the ground in 2003, is funded primarily by parents and Kadena’s 18th Services and Marine Corps Community Services. DODDS-Okinawa permits the teams to wear their respective school names, colors and mascots.

Davis feels that Far East tournaments would give females athletes more incentive to play softball, rather than soccer, which offers season-ending Far East tournaments.

“It would entice people to play,” Davis said. “They would have something to work for, and it would give them a chance to travel. A lot of girls play soccer for that reason. If we had a Far East, you’d have soccer players playing softball.”

Ware suggested that if areas continue to play different types of softball, it would be easier to convert to slowpitch for the purposes of having a Far East tournament.

“I can take this team and have it ready to play slowpitch in two days,” Ware said. “It takes much longer to go from slowpitch to fastpitch.”

Each of six new fastpitch teams had to recruit pitchers, catchers and fielders to play a vastly different game from slowpitch softball.

There are three outfielders instead of four. Pitches come in five times as fast. Strikeouts are far more common. First basemen and third basemen frequently play closer to home plate to defend bunts and hit-and-run plays. Stealing bases is more prevalent.

“There’s not as much standing around,” said Kubasaki sophomore outfielder Katherine Kelley, who played slowpitch for the Dragons last year after one year of fastpitch in Spotsylvania, Va. “I’m moving around a lot more. It’s more fun, a faster pace. We’re not playing like senior citizens any more.”