Things dramatically changed during the offseason for a team that was expected to remain intact.
Coach Willy Walker resigned after three seasons leading the Houston High School softball program. Maddie Vandiver, the program’s single-season leader in stolen bases, transferred schools. And the team’s returning catcher, Belle Knarr, was seriously injured in a car accident last week.
The team also failed to add a key piece when incoming freshman Abbey Slocum moved with her family to Texas at the end of the summer.
The personnel changes –– especially Knarr’s absence –– have left first-year coach Brent Hall and the Lady Tigers scrambling to plug the holes in a lineup that was eligible to return every player from the 2011 season.
“We’re trying to get everyone to do just a little bit more to make up for the losses,” Hall said. “With all the changes that have happened with our team, there will be some of them that need to play positions they haven’t played before or might not be their first choice. That’s what being on a team is all about. You’ve got to make sacrifices.”
Houston does return six starters. Five earned all-conference honors last season as they led the Lady Tigers to their first-ever district victory.
Taylor Franklin remains the cornerstone of the team. The junior shortstop hit a team-best .574 and led the Lady Tigers in home runs (three), RBIs (28), doubles (eight) and on-base percentage (.672) en route to the first all-state honors in program history.
Franklin will anchor the offense with senior Kayla Kelley and sophomore Olivia Woosley. Kelley hit .507 and drove in 26 runs last year and Woosley batted .439 with 19 RBIs and 16 steals in her first season with the team.
Lizzy Swindell and Kaylea Preheim return after both batting above .300 in 2011. Freshman Autumn Walker could fill a spot near the top of the lineup vacated by Vandiver’s departure.
Defensively, there will be several changes for HHS.
Woosley moved from third base to catcher after Knarr’s accident. Preheim will take over for Woosley at third and Walker will fill Vandiver’s role at second base.
Hall said Woosley caught some when she was younger. The two couldn’t remember if she had volunteered to catch a JV game last year.
“Olivia will do fine,” Hall said. “She is very athletic and will adapt.”
Franklin (shortstop), Swindell (first base) and Hailey Dodson (center field) return as starters. Emily Harrison will start in left and Sadie Ashworth and Dani Sears will share time in right.
Mariah Clifton and Elisa Williamson will fill reserve roles off the bench.
“Our core of this team has experience,” Hall said. “They played all last year together and a lot during the summer. They’ve been there and done that.”
Kelley, who was unexpectedly thrust into the role of No. 1 pitcher last year, returns as the staff ace. Hall said she will log a majority of the team’s innings on the mound.
Sears and Swindell are relief options for the Lady Tigers. Franklin pitched several innings last year, but Hall said he prefers not to use her because moving her to pitcher weakens the defense.
Despite the unexpected changes, Hall said expectations remain high for a team that went 11-12 last season. Three players –– Franklin, Kelley and Preheim –– are three-year starters and three more –– Woosley, Swindell and Dodson –– started last season.
“Expectations are still there,” Hall said. “What I tell the girls –– and I’m being realistic ––with the things that have happened to our team, we have taken on a different look. It’s going to take a little while to get things where we want them. But through trial and error, everyone working hard and getting accustomed to new roles, we want to meet those expectations at the end of the year.”
The Lady Tigers’ first two scheduled games of the season were recently dropped. The team will instead kick off the 2012 campaign with the Aug. 25 Houston Invitational. The tournament will include four teams.
The season opener will be the first as the leader of a girls’ team for Hall, who was an assistant coach last season under Walker. He has been the HHS head baseball coach for 15 years.
“It’s night and day,” he said. “Sometimes you have to pick your battles. With boys, when something goes wrong, you can stop and chew on them and they’ll bounce back. Sometimes when you do that with the girls, they don’t bounce back the same way.
“I learned a lot from coach Walker. I took a lot from him, but I still do things my own way. The girls are still adjusting to that, and I’m still adjusting to them.”