File photos by Rick Nation and Kevin Nagle
With a strong core of returning players and an influx of promising freshmen, the Bryant Lady Hornets softball team is set to begin the 2015 season — if the weather will ever cooperate.
Jordan Williams
Winter weather has limited the Lady Hornets’ work on the field over the last two weeks and it forced the cancellation of their pre-season benefit game on Friday, Feb. 27, and their scheduled debut at Greenbrier on Monday, March 2.
As it stands, they’re hoping to play this weekend but the games are in northwest Arkansas, Friday at Fayetteville and Saturday at Rogers. Snow and ice are in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.
So they may not get to start until Beebe comes to Bryant on Tuesday, March 10.
Seniors Abby Staton and Jordan Williams lead the returning starters along with juniors Shayla McKissock and Julie Ward and sophomore Macey Jaramillo.
The team includes senior Cayla McDowell, who couldn’t play varsity last year after transferring, and juniors Kerrigan Allen, Skylar Harper, Miranda Mayfield and Anna Turpin. Sophomores are Mallory Theel and Shelby Stuckey.
The freshman group joining the program includes Keely Allen, Tori Allen, Kyla Baker, Gabriel Bonvillain, Sarah Evans, Jaclynn Greenwood, Regan Keesee, Raven Loveless, Baylee Rowton, Regan Ryan, Daniele Singleton, Maddie Stephens and Brooklyn Trammell.
“I’ve never kept 13 freshmen,” said Debbie Clark, who begins her sixth season as head coach at Bryant. “Thirteen can be a lucky number, I hear. We’ll see. We were really pleased with them at tryouts. I talked to them and I said, ‘I don’t know that, when you’re seniors, that I can play all 13 of you. So remember that. You’re going to have to keep working hard.’
“I really like these girls,” she said of the team as a whole. “And I told their parents that. ‘They’re a reflection of you guys and your parenting skills.’ I’m enjoying them. Have they messed up? Yeah. Have we had to run some triangles? Yeah. But you’ve got to teach discipline.
Macey Jaramillo
“I expect us to go very deep into the season,” the coach stated.
With that in mind, Clark, who has lead teams to four State championships including three at Bryant, said she’s having t-shirts made for the team that have 5-22-15 on the front but upside.
Why 5-22-15? Why upside down?
“That’s the date of the (State) championship,” she explained. “So every time they look at it, it’s the date. Someone may see it and ask them about it. ‘Why is it upside down?’ That gives them a chance to verbalize it.”
Staton, who has signed to play at Central Baptist College, returns as the primary pitcher. She’ll also help in the outfield and may play some third base.”
“She has just been, already, an incredible leader with the team,” Clark said. “She has matured so much as a player, as a person — and she would tell you that. She’s come back ready. A couple of times, she’s said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this, Coach.’ And that’s what you want.”
Williams, a pitcher who made a splash as a freshman stepping in late in Bryant’s State championship run, will be at first or in right field this year.
“It’s amazing how life takes funny turns,” Clark commented. “Her freshman year, she pitched her way into the circle to help give us a State championship. And now she has an injury that has ended her pitching days. It’s an injury you see in baseball but very rarely in softball.
“But she’s got a great bat and she’s got a great arm,” she continued. “She’s also leading us. She signed to play at UAM (University of Arkansas at Monticello) and is going to do well for them. She’s a lefty with a lot of power.”
McKissock returns at second. Clark noted that she’s made a verbal agreement to play at Mississippi College in Jackson after her high school career.
Shayla McKissock
“Shayla always works hard,” the coach said. “She’s so smart. She’s got a great score on the ACT. And when you see that in a player, you also see a lot of analytical thinking. She analyzes a lot. And that’s good most of the time. Sometimes she just needs to play.”
Ward, who has verbally committed to Henderson State, caught for the Lady Hornets some as a freshman but really took hold of the position and its responsibilities last year.
“She’s our general,” said Clark. “She can throw you out from her knees. She works hard. She has a part-time job at Diamond Sports and gives lessons and she teaches. She’s good about teaching. She wants to be good and she wants to help her team. She’s a leader even though she’s only a junior.”
The Lady Hornets may have quite a few freshmen contribute this year. Last season, it was Jaramillo who had a big impact as a ninth grader.
“We’ve brought her in from centerfield and put her at shortstop,” said Clark. “She’s just incredible. We knew last year as a freshman, she was. We had a shortstop in Brea Sanders last year but we knew we needed Macy on the field to get her bat in the lineup so we put her in center.
“She can make plays,” the coach added. “She knows where the ball should go. She reads the ball off the bat and she’s there. And when she is in that box, she puts on a clinic. She knows how to hit. Her mechanics are not going to fail. Is she going to strikeout? She will. But most of the time, she’s going to win the battle.”
Speaking of the freshmen, there may be first-year players starting in all three outfield spots, third base or first base.
“I told them, ‘It’s going to be like we’re at a swimming pool and I’m throwing you in the deep end and you’ve got to swim or drown,’” Clark related.
In the outfield, Regan Ryan, Regan Keesee, Daniele Singleton, Jacquiline Greenwood, Maddie Stephens and Kyla Baker are contending for playing time.
“They’re all putting pressure on me to decide who’s going to be the starters out there,” Clark said.
Regarding Ryan, who looks like the starter in center, she added, “She’s a slapper, my first true slapper since Jenna Bruick. She knows where to place that ball. She can cover ground and read the ball off that bat too.”
Another freshman, Raven Loveless, is in the mix at first base along with McDowell and Turpin, once they get through with basketball.
“We lost a lot when we lost Kaley Coppock,” Clark said, referring to her four-year standout at first, who graduated last spring.
“Cayla had to play JV for us last year because of the AAA eligibility rule and she worked hard,” the coach said. “I’m excited about her coming down. She’s a senior and she’s ready to show us what she can do. She’s strong. She can hit. She’s got a great arm.”
Loveless, Clark related, has great promise in the pitcher’s circle. “She’s 5-11 and with that kind of height, she’s halfway to home and in that batter’s face when she releases the ball.”
Another freshman, Sarah Evans, will get a shot to start at third. Evans actually played football in seventh and eighth grade at Bethel Middle School.
I’m glad she hung up that helmet and is playing softball instead,” Clark stated. “She’s talented. She’s in band. She’s smart. And she can play. She’s a hard worker. She’s fast.
“She’s also a catcher and that is her love,” added the coach. “She and I talked. She said, ‘Coach, I’ll play where you want me to.’ She knows that we have a catcher and, if she wants to play, third base might be the best for her.”
Kerrigan Allen, Clark said, has also looked good in practice at third.
The coach’s smile broadened when she mentioned some other additions to the team. Joining her primary assistant coach Nathan Castaldi and volunteer assistant DeAnna Ward, are volunteers Eric Ryan and Joanna Curtis.
Ryan, the former head softball coach at Benton, led the Lady Panthers to a Class 6A State title in 2005, one of four trips to the finals in six years. Curtis played for him at Benton before continuing her career at Ouachita Baptist University.
“I don’t know if there’s another team anywhere that has what I have, four assistant coaches, especially coaching for what they’re coaching for which is the love of the game and the love of the girls,” asserted Clark. “We all do it because we love these kids and love what we’re doing.
“All of them have strengths that are incredible,” he added. “I can put Nathan in charge of this and Joanna in charge of this and Eric this and DeAnna this. When we have practice — when we can have practice outside — nobody’s being left out. All of the girls are involved in practice.”
Bryant’s 2015 schedule is here.
