Softball looking for young players to step up as season begins
Softball will play their first district game on March 10 against Irving Nimitz. Their current record is 0-4.
The team played a few games during the fall leagues while also doing off season activities like training and practicing. Head coach Jason Gwyn said at the start of the semester, the team had started training for the upcoming games.
“After Christmas, we started ramping up toward getting ready for official practices,” Gwyn said. “Then when our actual practices started, we’ve just been doing a lot more live hitting and defense practicing for situations that we might experience during actual games.”
Sophomore and third baseman Madison Berry’ said softball requires both time and effort to succeed.
“I really enjoy softball because it’s a fun environment, and I love the competitiveness,” Berry said. “Softball takes a lot of focus and commitment. It’s not a sport you can just sign up for and think it’s like a blow-off thing. It takes work and a lot of practice to get better.”
Sophomore Jadyn Moore was on the JV team her freshman year, and this year she moved up to varsity. She said the team was very welcoming, and she has made new friendships with everyone.
“It’s been different for me because I am with a different group of girls,” Moore said. “I have made nice connections with them even though I am new, and they have all been really nice and encouraging.”
Gwyn said since so many seniors graduated last year, they have been adding younger students to the team. This year, coaches have been going back to the basics and getting everyone comfortable with their roles and skills they need to be successful.
“We have been adding more skills training mostly because we have so many young freshmen and sophomores,” Gwyn said. “We had to go back to more heavy teaching, whereas in the past since we had older and more experienced kids, we didn’t have to teach as much.”
Berry has been playing softball for three years. She said she has been working on some skills to improve her hitting.
“Some techniques I have learned were how to get the ball on the left side of my body when fielding and then when hitting, and I have been working on driving my backside to give myself more power and drive the ball,” Berry said.
The team usually has practice after school until 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. depending on the day. Gwyn said he wants the team to be as successful as they can be, and he is looking forward to a good season.
“I want to have the best possible season that we could have,” Gwyn said. “I want the girls to be able to look back and reflect on the season and say they did everything, and they had the best season they think they could’ve had. I don’t want them to have any regrets about anything they did or didn’t do during the season.”
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Senior Arisha Hirji is the web editor and this is her third year on staff. She enjoys painting in her free time, hanging out with friends and listening...