BATTING AROUND New coaching staff leads softball team to improvment

By Aaron Durham Sports Writer

Since the beginning of the season, the softball team has been getting better and strengthening their team. At the start of the season, the team was just getting back into it. Coach Warner took pride in getting the girls to where they needed to be. One step at a time, by keeping the errors down and the bats hot, Coach Warner slowly but surely shaped these players into the ideal team.

“We are always working on our hitting. From a defensive perspective, we are continuing to work on the foundational mechanics of glovework and footwork for the infield. For our outfield, we are working quite a bit on footwork and tracking. We have spent a lot of time working individually with our pitchers and catchers as well,” Warner said.

A big thing for Coach Warner was the mental game and how the players were mentally preparing for the games. It is no surprise that they have been so calm and collected on the mound.

“We are continuously working on the mental game with our team and preaching the champi- onship mentality. Knowing that each player is supported and the rest of the team has her back really helps keep the energy up,” Warner said. These skills translate from practice to games. Coach Warner is already looking forward to the sectional to see what progress they have made from the beginning of the season and what they need to work more on in practice to stay prepared.

“We keep a close watch on the mistakes we make in games and that is our priority at the following practice. We understand that mistakes will be made but it is our job to figure out why it was made and what adjustments the players need to make to eliminate them from happening again,” Warner said.

This team has made jumps since the beginning of the season started, and in time they’ll make more. All the hard work that the coaches and players put in will show in the games and the stat sheets. Coach Warner is turning these girls into a competitive team going into sectionals.

“Our staff knew going into this season that we had a lot of ground to cover and time to make up so we have set realistic expectations. Our record and the scoreboard doesn’t truly reflect the significant amount of improvement that each player has made so far this season or the number of small wins we have collectively had as a team. As coaches, we love to teach the game and help each player along their journey and we are doing just that every single day,” Warner said.