Southwest softball team excited for growth, future seasons

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

A season filled with growing pains also resulted in steady progress for the Southwest softball team, as the Lady Trojans developed a young roster to lay a foundation for the future.

Coach Melissa Mitchell said the team’s 5-16 record did not fully reflect the strides made throughout the season, pointing instead to the growth she witnessed from a group replacing several experienced players.

“Overall, I think we learned a lot this season,” Mitchell said. “I saw a lot of growth from the players this season. We really focused on controlling the controllables and learning every chance we could, even though our record was not the best.”

Mitchell said the team’s greatest improvement came in its ability to respond to adversity instead of allowing mistakes to snowball.

“The biggest improvement I saw this season was trying to compete and not letting one mistake take control of the game,” Mitchell said. “It wasn’t always perfect, but the girls worked hard to pick themselves up when things were hard. 

“We were a very young team and lost a lot of varsity starters from the year before, so some girls had some big shoes to fill and worked hard to improve themselves throughout the season.”

While pleased with the team’s development, Mitchell believes confidence remains the next step.

“I would have loved to see more confidence in certain players, but that comes with experience and I truly believe the girls are so close to gaining that confidence and trust in themselves to really take off,” Mitchell said.

One contest early in the year helped define the team’s progress despite ending in defeat.

“We played Mt. Vernon at Mt. Vernon during the first few weeks of the season, and even though we lost the game, I felt like that was the first time at that point that each and every girl competed and really understood what it felt like to compete during a game and not let one mistake set the tone of the game,” Mitchell said. “They worked hard in that game.”

Mitchell said the team’s improvement also showed in its ability to meet the expectations established before the season.

“We set a goal during the early season to try to compete in every game,” Mitchell said. “Some games we did better than other games, but I do believe the girls improved throughout the season. Even though it was a season of tremendous growth, I believe that each player on our team learned quite a bit and improved their skills in some way.”

The Lady Trojans will graduate four seniors whose impact extended beyond statistics.

“We had four seniors this past season and they each played an important part on our team,” Mitchell said. “We will miss their encouragement and leadership.”

Mitchell expects the returning roster and an incoming freshman class to accelerate the program’s development next season.

“I am truly looking forward to the incoming freshman,” Mitchell said. “We are gaining a good amount of players and I think they will bring some speed to our team. I am also really excited for all the returning players. They are a hard working group with good attitudes and are eager to learn. I think this next season will be very hopeful for our program.”

As preparations begin for another campaign, Mitchell’s focus remains on continued daily improvement.

“I hope to continue to improve, for the girls to get better throughout the entire season, to really focus on doing the little things right, and execute plays when needed,” Mitchell said.