It might take some time, but Van-Far softball believes it can be competitive by districts.
Most of the roster is returning for the Lady Indians this season, but they will be dealing with a few …
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It might take some time, but Van-Far softball believes it can be competitive by districts.
Most of the roster is returning for the Lady Indians this season, but they will be dealing with a few injuries to start the season.
Head coach Cameron Huff enters his second year with the program after leading Van-Far to a 7-16 record for its best winning percentage in four years. Huff said the girls will be aware of his expectations going into the year rather than needing time to learn, but the 14 girls will now have to limit the mistakes they made last year.
“Girls are going to have to step up in positions where they haven’t played,” Huff said. “It might be a work in progress at the beginning.”
Along with all-district pitcher Adyson Barnett, Huff said Van-Far will count on Adrianna Craven and Kylie Dameron to fill varsity innings after pitching junior varsity last year.
On a positive note, Mylee Keller will start the season as one of the team’s seniors after missing time last year due to injury. She was an all-district player, Elliott Utterback was all-conference and Kenya Jones was the team’s catcher to round out the rest of the seniors. Rounding out the rest of the returning all-district selections are Bryanna Stanich, Carly Hunn and Kylee Gibson.
“We have some all-district players returning on the defensive side,” Huff said. “The defensive side will definitely be the strength. It might take a little bit longer to get us started and back into the pace we expect to be.”
Huff said he thinks a small ball approach and being aggressive on the bases will have to happen, but that will take some transition. He’s also open to making adjustments during the season to figure out what works.
Van-Far wants to “win the winnable games” this season after losing close games last year. This was especially true at the end when the Lady Indians closed the season with a three-game losing streak. However, Van-Far only lost to Wright City 5-4 and then to district foe Clopton 5-1 and 9-5, so mistakes loom larger in those types of games.
“The big question is going to be how do we turn the page and flip to the next chapter and beat a Clopton in districts,” Huff said. “How do we make small adjustments and small changes where we’re on the opposite side of the win-loss column? Like playing high-quality softball at the end of the year when districts come around.”
