This week marked the beginning of full-team practices for Starkville Academy’s softball team and the Volunteers have already hit the ground running in preparations for the season’s start on July 31 at home in a doubleheader against Kemper County.
The squad is now led by head coach Kenneth Wade, who has spent the last six years as an assistant coach, and returned all but one of its starters and contributors after propelling itself to the MAIS 4A Class III state tournament last season. It was a finish that left the team hungry.
“Once they got there (to the state tournament) they got a taste of it and they want to get back,” Wade said. “This group right here is a close group with our baseball group and they saw the run they had, and that made them even more hungrier that, ‘Hey, we can get there, and once we get there we have to finish the job.’”
Upon sensing that feeling from the team, he laid out a plan to get the team in the weight room ahead of their summer practices. He said the Vols have attacked their tasks every day trying to build upon the foundation they laid last season.
“This year is really the only time we’ve ever done an offseason program as far as weights and getting faster and anything like that, and they were hungry to do that,” he said. “They were hungry to do that and get stronger and faster and just better – and so far from what I’ve seen it’s paid off. They have more bounce in their step, the way we hit the ball with more authority, they are more confident in the box and everything like that with confidence on the field. This is a good group.”
The team brings back its core of two-way player Molly Ingram, shortstop Ella Kate Heflin, centerfielder Lauren Adkerson and catcher Emmi Miller, who along with the rest of the Vols have been spending time on getting better at the plate – an issue that plagued the squad at times in some of its bigger games.
“With the way we hit, when we do batting practices it is more about hitting with a purpose. Everything we do is with a purpose. We kind of put pressure on them in practice, that way when they get into a game they will be relaxed and execute hopefully.”
The early days have been spent getting better in the circle with Ingram returning after a monster sophomore campaign in which she piled up double-digit strikeouts multiple times. Wade said Azleigh Slivka, an upcoming freshman, will also pitch along with Sarah Montgomery, another upcoming freshman.
“They’ve gotten stronger, throwing a little bit harder, locating a little bit better,” Wade said. “That’s kind of been my focus here these last three or four weeks, just really working with the pitchers hitting spots and locating.”
There’s still plenty to work on ahead of the season’s start and Wade said his team will likely also participate in some summer games to help get them ready. He doesn’t have to supply the drive, though, to get better. He said the Vols already have plenty of that. He’s just keeping them on the right path.
“It’s been pretty easy,” he said with a laugh. “We have everyone coming back, and this group of girls work really hard. They’re hungry, they want to be successful and as far as the coaching part – it’s been easy. I hope it stays like that, but I’ve enjoyed it.”
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