With each game comes experience
The Lady Outlaws began the season with an early start in many ways. With only four seniors leading the team, underclassmen are learning while leading.
With many athletes lacking time on the field, the softball team faces trials every day.
Senior Hannah Wade discussed the challenges of having very few upperclassmen.
“We are a very young team; we don’t have many upperclassmen,” Wade said. “They take every day as a new learning experience.”
Seniors Kirstyn Elroy, Megan Fitzhugh, Emily Taylor and Hannah Wade are all hopeful as they look towards the season. Although they have not had the season they have yearned for, the seniors are all expecting a great season to emerge.
“We need to improve on putting every game together,” Fitzhugh said. “We will hit good but make small mistakes on defense, and then the next game it will be the other way around.”
While learning the game, underclassmen are also learning to pay attention to detail.
Head Coach Brian Miller said that underclassmen need to learn how to construct every game.
“We have to figure out how to put games together,” Miller said. “Once we decide how to do this, we will definitely come away with some wins.”
Along with daily practices and games, the team holds weekly Bible studies to become closer with each other and God as well.
Many of the team members agreed that the weekly Bible studies have helped the team in many ways.
Sophomore Lauren Wade believes that the Bible studies have made the team closer as a family and better on the field.
“We have a Godly leader this year, Hannah Wade,” Lauren Wade said. “The weekly Bible studies make us all more positive.”
Sophomore Kaytlyn Smock agreed with Lauren saying the Bible studies bring the team closer together like a family.
“They also lead us to play better as a team,” Smock added.
The girls started working in early June for their summer league team, as well as having hitting camps.
They also had a summer league team. Their team had games every Monday night starting in June and ending in the middle of August.
Though the team did not excel in the beginning, practice has begun to make the team perfect.
“The summer league games did not go as planned,” Smock said. “Although they did not go as we had hoped, we used them as a practice and as a source of encouragement for the rest of this season.”
With summer preparations out of the way, games for OSSAA have ensued.
Senior Kirstyn Elroy commented on the struggles of the team being taken as a positive thing.
“We started the year off a little rough,” Elroy said. “I think that it makes us stronger each game; we will end up being even stronger by the end of the season.”
Miller agreed with Elroy’s thinking of the rough start being motivational and shared his input on the team by the end of the season.
“We are struggling with our season so far, but it can be fixed,” Miller said. “We will be surprising many people by the end of this season.”
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