Waterford — The question is posed to Waterford High School softball coach Liz Sutman: What’s the funniest thing her second baseman, Shea Spellman, has ever done?

Sutman defers to a group of her players walking by her after practice one day last week.

“Like today,” pitcher Kazi Walker says, taking on the topic of Spellman.

Sutman is already laughing at the short span of time Walker has to search her memory banks for an example.

“We were at the (Eastern Connecticut Conference) leadership conference today and everyone has to answer questions as a group. One person from each table stands up,” Walker said. “Everyone stands up and says, ‘Hi, I’m so and so.’ (Spellman’s) like, ‘Helloooooo.’ All the kids were like, ‘Do you know her? She seems funny.’

“Or once when we slept over her house we had the Shea Olympics. We all had to be a country.”

“That’s how I get through things, being positive,” Spellman said. “That fixes a lot for me. It makes me happy.”

Spellman, a junior, is entering her first varsity softball season after missing last year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.

She suffered the injury during basketball season on March 3, 2014, her birthday, during the first round of the Class M state tournament. She missed the ensuing softball and soccer seasons before returning to basketball this winter.

She also had surgery last summer to correct the bone structure of her jaw, making it a tough 2014.

But there was precedence for Spellmans being positive in the wake of otherwise dispiriting injuries.

Shea’s older sister Megan, a 2013 Waterford graduate, tore her ACL and meniscus, then chipped a bone in her right wrist during a preseason softball game prior to her final season. All Megan Spellman did was come back after three weeks in an arm brace and pitch Waterford to a Class M state championship, earning MVP honors in the final and being named The Day’s All-Area Softball Player of the Year.

“Definitely, seeing her come back strong and stay positive about it ... I saw how strong she came back,” Shea Spellman said. “She definitely talked me through it. She said, ‘You can get through it.’”

Spellman didn’t miss a game despite her inability to compete.

She was in the dugout as a spectator last year during a season in which the Lancers went 17-7 overall and shared the ECC Medium title. And she was on the sideline this fall for the Waterford girls’ soccer team’s Class M state quarterfinal run.

“She didn’t complain either,” Kazi Walker said. “No tears.”

It’s just that having been the younger sister/cheerleader for Megan as she played for the Waterford South team which reached the 2007 Little League World Series in Portland, Ore., and as she won a state championship her senior year with the Lancers, it was slated to be Spellman’s turn.

“I was trying to do one of my fiercely cool crossover moves. Unfortunately, I crossed over myself,” Spellman said of the injury. “I wasn’t really worried because I hurt myself a lot. But I knew it hurt. I knew it wasn’t good.”

And so it was last Thursday before Spellman took infield for the first time as a full-fledged member of Waterford’s varsity softball team, which is scheduled to begin its season today at home against Norwich Free Academy.

“It feels really nice to be back,” Spellman said. “(Taking infield) was wonderful, especially with all the girls on the team. It’s great to be back into sports with everyone 100 percent. It’s a great team. I’ve got great support from the girls whether it’s on the field or off the field. It’s fun to come to practice.”

Spellman played for the junior varsity team as a freshman and had coach Anna Levesque describing her feats to Sutman — “she hit bombs,” Sutman said — who brought Spellman up for the postseason.

Two years later, Sutman predicts that Spellman, who went from pitching and playing shortstop at the JV level to second base this season, will have a productive spring and carry it over into all three sports her senior year. Sutman said Spellman, who is about 5-foot-9, will hit in the middle of the order.

“She’s tough. She’s a really good athlete,” Sutman said. “She has grit, determination. No doubt she works hard. She just hasn’t had the opportunity to show it. She’s been diving after balls ... it’s like she’s been playing second base her whole life.”

“Freshman year basketball I sprained my ankle. And in basketball I jam my fingers. But I’m not fragile,” Spellman said of her day-to-day approach which has gotten her back on the field again. “I get knocked down a lot, but I don’t stay. I always get back up.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday