"Never back down" - News story

As the snow continues to melt and the temperature rises, the Eastview girl’s softball team continues preparing for the start of their season, only about two weeks out from now. Their season begins on March 4, 2010, where they will begin practicing on the south fields behind the high school. This team, mostly dominated by seniors, has high aspirations this year, and has spent time in the preseason preparing for what they hope to be a winning season. Winter league, open gyms, and clinics have long been underway. For eight weeks in the winter, the varsity team played in dome ball games on Sundays, and now open gyms and clinics have begun once or twice a week. The girls have been fully committed to kicking this year off right, and hopefully that’s what they do. For all the softball fans out there, the girls’ season opener is on April 13th, at home against Lakeville North.
Coming off of a “rough” season last year, according to senior catcher Lindsay Spanton, with a record around .500, there is definitely some room for improvement. Commenting on last year’s season, Spanton says that it was a year for some adjusting and people finding their places. Losing only two seniors, she hopes that they have settled in and can now focus more on improving the things that will make them successful this season. Without the loss of any starters, expectations are high for this returning team. Assistant coach Mark Gerber wants to see them “work hard, be disciplined, and have a great attitude…and hopefully be in the top half of the lake conference.” After talking with Gerber, it is the teams fundamentals that they need to improve on and execute in order for them to be successful this season.
Some team goals that Spanton advocated were to beat Eagan, who she says has the best pitcher, improve their record from last year, and to go farther in sections. Spanton, along with senior first baseman Allie Merkley, were junior captains last season, but this year the softball team with go without captains. Spanton feels that “we are still the leaders and basically captains, so not much has changed. It really won’t affect us much; we’ll just keep doing what we did last year.” Even without captains, coach Gerber looks for leadership from Merkley, Spanton, and senior Erin McIassac.
I also spoke with team manager, Nolan Titchner, who became manager in his first season without playing baseball. He notes that he would like to see this team “play hard every game, and be playing their best ball at sections.” Titchner plans to contribute in any way possible, from moral support, to doing the dirty work, like picking up balls at hitting practice. He will also keep stats, take video of the games, and anything else the team asks of him.
The team will take a trip to Camp Friendship for 3 days over spring break, in order to “get to know others, start team building, goal setting, and to have fun,” says Gerber. Their short but sweet spring break trip will include a bus ride to northern Minnesota to a camp that includes challenge courses, a ropes course, team bonding activities, and some fun and relaxation for the girls. They will all be staying in one big cabin as to not split up the team. Although they won’t be playing any softball, the main goal for this trip is to “find out what is important to [the girls],” says Gerber.
This year seems to be the year to make it happen for the Lightning girls softball team. They are stacked with senior talent, and virtually the same team as last year, now working on their second year together. With strong senior leadership, and a committed manager, this team has got what it takes to make some changes and come out strong this season. Good luck to the girl’s softball team as they begin their season.