After their memorable performance last year, the Edmond Memorial High School softball team had another stellar season on their way to becoming division champs. After a long beginning to the season, the Lady Bulldogs fought through adversity and finished strong.
Coming off their championship win last season, the beginning of the season was full of expectations, meaning they needed some way to push these expectations to the side. In doing so the team needed to look at themselves to find the answers to fix their faults.
“We’ve been talking a lot about playing together as a team, team culture and mental toughness,” second year head coach Kayla Carlsward said.
This idea of team culture and being a “single unit” is a huge part of what has made the EMHS’s softball team successful this season once again. While it took some adjusting after the major success of last season, it was ultimately their realization that they needed to have clear communication to build themselves up to the success they proved they were capable of the previous season.
“We have had to work on our communication; it is a big thing especially after winning state last year and attempting to go back-to-back,” sophomore Keegan Baker said.
One of the reasons the softball team challenging beginning to their season was seven of their nine starters returned from their championship win last year which added extra pressure to their season. This pressure to live up to the expectations set during the prior season is a difficult part of continued success. To push themselves past this, they had hit a sort of a reset.
“We started off really slow,” senior Sydnee Seat said. ”We have a target on our back this year and we played very tense during the first half of the season. Overall, we realized that there is no reason to have pressure on ourselves because it is a new season and what we accomplished last year means nothing.”
After beating Stillwater 12-2 on Sept. 25 the Lady Bulldogs were declared district champs, despite their proclaimed slow start. Due to this they hosted regionals, where they impressed everyone in the stands. They punched their way to state off the back of their play and having home-field advantage.
“[The team] likes the energy from getting to play at home and having their fanbase there with them,” Carlsward said.
At state the Lady Bulldogs fought hard, staying alive long enough to compete all three days, including the championship game. In the game they gave it their all, narrowly losing to Southmoore 2-1. It was not the desired outcome, but it was still a major accomplishment in its own right.
The softball season was impressive. The Lady Bulldogs battled through adversity, rolled through regionals and fought hard at state. They have been a huge part of Memorial, making the student body and staff proud.
Contact Lathan Pearce at [email protected]
