Last year, due to COVID-19, the girls softball season got shut down. Now, this year, they are up and running again.

The girls only had two seniors,  Shyann Komara and Brooke Matoic,graduate last year, but not many new players came up from the middle school. The team in total has eleven players, which all make up the varsity team. 

On the roster are freshmen Shaye Bailey and Emilee Waggoner, sophomores Kiersten Ferrell, Leyasa Young and Hannah Goins, junior Audrey Lawrence and seniors Erica Gazdik, Olivia Shaffer, Tara Speicher and Haley Scheck. 

“An expectation I have this year is to get good chemistry between the teammates since we did not get to have a season last year,” Gazdik said. 

I’m looking forward to this year’s season, and I’m proud of the commitment and hard work our team has put into our practices even with it being harder with new COVID-19 regulations,” Gazdik said. 

The expectations are set to be good this year and the amount of work they have been putting in is going to make it happen. This is a great time to put in the work although COVID-19 is around it won’t affect the team.

“This is my last high school season of softball ever. It makes me sad that it is ending but also happy that I got to have amazing experiences and memories with people that I have been friends with for so long. I think our team can be great and achieve our maximum potential,” Gazdik said. 

The girls have been working very hard this year since last year was affected. Keeping away from COVID-19 and practicing hard is a great start for this year’s season.

“We’ve had less time to prepare for this season compared to the previous seasons because usually we start conditioning in January. This season we got pushed back a month, but we are still working hard. We have high expectations for this season and our goal is to make another playoff appearance. I’m thankful we are able to play this year despite COVID-19,” Lawrence said. 

Their practices have been going hard and strong. The more work the more improvement.

“When we practice we start off with stretching and then after stretching we start our throwing to loosen our arms. Next, we start fielding and doing our situations to get ourselves prepared for games. Then, we move on to catching fly balls. We practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday,” Bailey said.

Although they are still practicing hard COVID still had an impact on most, especially the freshman. 

“Each and everyday that we practice we are building chemistry between all of us. I feel that we will be pretty good even though we don’t have the biggest team. We still have a lot of talent and girls willing to work. COVID-19 has impacted a lot of freshman year for me by taking away games, but I am glad that we are actually getting the opportunity to play,” Bailey said.