The pressure is on for this year’s new softball teams. Last year, JV went undefeated, and Varsity placed second in district as well as making all the way to the state qualifying rounds. Varsity Softball ended their season one win away from making it to the state playoffs. According to Coach Tumilty, the new season also brings the challenges of having to rebuild team chemistry after losing several seniors and having more new players than returning for the Varsity team.
“We’re having to completely bond with new teammates because we have combined half of last year’s JV with the remainder of Varsity,” varsity sophomore Whitney Wolkow said.
Wolkow played on JV as a freshman and is now starting on Varsity. According to her, JV is all new players since most returning players have been moved up to varsity or cut.
“Even though JV is all freshmen, I think we have great potential,” Freshman Addyson Robinson said.
Tumilty hopes to achieve at least second or higher in this districts this year as well as make it to the playoffs again. Despite the change in team dynamics, the coaches and players have high expectations for the new season.
“There’s a lot of new ones, but we still expect them to place in the top spots of districts so we can make it to playoffs,” Coach Tumilty said.
In preparation for the new season, the girls have trained non-stop, even in off season. The first 18 weeks of the school year is off season, where the girls do strength and conditioning programs. Then in the second semester the focus is all on softball. Even outside of school, the players work hard on softball in their free time. Both Robinson and Wolkow have weekly batting lessons and trips to the hitting cages on top of school and select team practices.
The JV and Varsity teams have started off their season with their first scrimmages against Grapevine.
“Both JV and Varsity won. I think it was a good start to the season,” Robison said.
Despite all the challenges the new season brings, all the girls are determined to make it to state.
“We have a great team with three strong pitchers and a strong offense at the plate. As long as we hit well and our defense is strong, I think we will make it to state this year,” Wolkow said.
