By Tamas Mondovics
The Riverview High School softball program with head coach, Angela Slater, at the helm has little reason to complain about the way things are shaping up this spring.
With less than a month into the season, sporting 14 girls, including five freshman, six sophomores, two juniors and one senior, all the while leading the league, the Sharks are visibly on the right track of building both a solid program as well as their confidence in preparation for their upcoming district games.
While an understandable wake-up call, the Shark’s 7-5 loss to Durant in game three was not enough to shake the program’s confidence of a strong season as well as a determination and commitment to bounce back and keep the season on track.
Slater, who along with her husband, Ron, has been coaching at Riverview for the past 15 seasons, is once again pleased with the current roster, but did mention a few deficiencies such as lack of experience and the necessity to learn does pose a challenge for the program.
“We are simply a young team with not a whole lot of depth,” Slater said but added, “It’s all about growing and learning from each game and to be ready for districts.”
Commenting on the need to be competitive, Slater emphasized the importance of focusing on the basics, and the fundamentals of the game instead of the end result, and said that as long as the team is doing all the little things right, the winning will take care of itself.
While confident of a team effort, the Sharks are counting on several key players this year, including Peyton Moritz, Elizabeth Gauthier, Kaitlyn McMillan and Kayla Newsome just to name a few.
As for bringing the season to a successful end, Slater was not concerned with the current standing, or the winning streak or any upcoming scores, but kept things in perspective when she said, “I coach for the present, one game at a time,” she said. “We have to work hard, do our best, learn all that we can and see how we all measure up the rest of the way.”
For more information about the Sharks please visit www.maxpreps.com.
