By: Marcia Herrero and Alara Sheriff
Co-A&E Editor and Social Media Coordinator
Hammond’s Varsity Softball season this year has been one heck of a battle for the girls. This year they beat teams that they had not beaten in years. The Lady Bears ended the season on top of the League Standings and Section Standings with a 14-3 and 14-4 record— the highest in years, creating a new record for Hammond Softball.
This season started off on a great note with a win for Hammond against Wilde Lake by a score of 15-4 on Monday, March 25th. But the day the season’s momentum changed was Wednesday, May 1st when Hammond beat Howard with a score of 4-1 on their home field.
“The best part of the season [by far] was definitely beating Howard. Everyone was so excited, it was a really close game… until the last inning, so that was an intense moment” said Freshman Madison Berning.
Kelley Noppenberger, Sophomore, was happy as she recounted the best part of her season. “Beating Howard 4 to 1 which we haven’t [done] in about 10 years. Reportedly Senior Armonie Lane was sobbing happy tears and giving bear hugs to everyone on the team. The Lady Bears also won county championships which they have not done since 2007.
In the beginning of the season, the girls mostly knew each other, but there were some new players that did not yet know each other. After a couple practices and games they seemed to get closer and grow into a family. It has shown the improvement not only in sportsmanship but the results in the games seemed to improve as they got deeper into the season.
“I’m really trying to grow as a person and improve my attitude towards everyone” says Freshman Kasey Smith. They may have grown as a team but there is no such thing as perfect. As a team, they all individually need something to work on to become a better player and teammate. “I can definitely work on being more vocal with the team and not be so scared to speak when I see something” said Madison Berning.
This season was pretty different than most seasons before. Hammond gained a new coach that the girls needed to grow used to. The team had to adapt to new ways of learning new skills. Coach Kavach has definitely had a huge impact on this team. But as they adapted, the team started to love Kovach and his ways of coaching. The work definitely paid off because they beat Howard and won county’s. There has got to be something good going on if they are beating almost every team in the county.
We both have experience with softball. We were on the Hammond JV softball team. These girls really seemed to have a bond like no other. When we had a practice with them one day, we were a little nervous because they seemed pretty intimidating, which is good when you want to beat other teams. Before the practice we were all a little confused on our bases and basic skills. But after this practice we really improved as a team because they taught us on what we need to know at each base and what the expectations are. Overall this season was probably one of the many years that Hammond softball will never forget. Maybe even next year they will make states. We will just have to see where Hammond varsity softball goes next.
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