Prep Softball Preview: Boyle's state tourney run changes outlook, expectations for program

It’s just a big block of wood, really. Doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t take up much space. Seldom leaves its shelf.

But it is something that Boyle County’s softball players walk by every day they are at school, something to remind them of what they accomplished and what they are capable of.

It is the third-place trophy from last season’s state tournament, and it represents everything that has changed in Boyle’s program over the past year, and everything the Rebels hope to change in the future.

Things are different now at Boyle, and while the transformation started long before the Rebels’ surprising state tournament run, the trophy they brought home from Owensboro and what it stands for are continuing to drive that change.

“It really motivates us and just makes us push harder this year to succeed in the postseason,” senior outfielder Amy Woolum said.

For starters, Boyle’s 2012 season has shown them what is possible. Boyle had strung together some good seasons in recent years, but the Rebels never approached what they did last season, when they went 33-13 and won three state tournament games before losing to eventual champion Mercy in a semifinal and runner-up Lone Oak in the consolation final.

And it has raised expectations for this season, and also driven the players to work even harder.

“I think everybody is raising the bar high, even coach (Brian) Deem,” Woolum said. “We can see what we can do, so we just really hold each other accountable.”

That starts with the team’s seven seniors, who said they have been pushing each other and the rest of their teammates through the offseason and are continuing to do so.

“I feel like we’re all tough on ourselves. We all hold each other accountable, even in the weight room. In the offseason we’ve all worked really hard,” pitcher-first baseman Elysse Petrie said. “We’ve all tried to lead by example, too, and do the best we can.”

Opening day is approaching — Boyle opens a new season March 19 — but the Rebels have been working for most of the nine months since last season ended. Almost all of them played in the summer and/or fall, and the work continued after they left the field.

“We did weightlifting in the ball, we did form-running in the fall, we started hitting in November. We’d get outside when it was cold and we’d practice with the girls we had,” pitcher-first baseman Hannah Miniard said.

 “We’ve been hitting a lot. We have an indoor facility, and we’ve been working on hitting when we’ve been able to get outside,” catcher Heather Hasty said.

 The seniors said they’re also making the most of their artificial turf field at Rebel Stadium.

 “Having turf really helps us, so when it rains we have an advantage,” infielder Cullen Byrne said.

 “And when we do go outside,” outfielder Hannah Chadwell added, “we get a lot more crammed in.”

 All of that work and play has made Boyle’s senior class a very close group.

 “I think we’re really tight. We’ve been together since middle school, pretty much,” Byrne said. “This is who we hang out with outside of softball in the summer, so we’re always together.”

 They love winning, but they seem to enjoy all of the other aspects of being part of a team as well.

 “I love tournaments. I like getting on a bus and traveling two hours away and rooming with all these girls. It gets crazy, but I think it’s our best time to bond,” Chadwell said.

 “I think it’s important and significant, too, that each of us has our own role and we all fill that role to the best of our ability,” Petrie added.

 There is a different feeling around Boyle softball, one that wasn’t there even when the Rebels won 26 games in 2010 and 27 in 2011. Deem, the longtime girls soccer coach at Boyle who took over as softball coach last year, said it’s the same thing he saw in 2005 when his soccer team won its first regional title.

 “All of a sudden, there was a buzz,” Deem said. “And softball has a huge buzz in this county right now.”

 There are 32 players on the roster this season, up from 23 last year, and Deem said there are 35 girls on the middle-school roster after cuts were made.

 As for the team that will take the field next week, Deem said the biggest difference he sees is in the way his players are approaching the details of the game.

 “They’re paying attention, understanding how the little things can make or break a game,” he said. “Last year, I think they knew but they didn’t understand it. They didn’t have something concrete to realize the game might be won or lost. They’ve now seen that and experienced it, unfortunately, which makes it easier to understand that.”

 The seniors say the changes Deem made in his first season have impacted the program as well.

 “He definitely raised the bar from the beginning for the whole program, and now it’s become where we feel like we need to be,” said second baseman-outfielder Chelsea Gill, who sat out last season with a knee injury but was still with the team.

 How did he do it?

 “One word would be discipline,” Woolum said.

 “The first day he had us at practice, he had a set lesson plan, and we never had that before,” Chadwell added.

 “I think he no longer made it, ‘You know you all can do it.’ It was, ‘You all will do it.’ It wasn’t, ‘We wish we could do that,’” Gill said. “He had watched us before, and he knew what we could do.”

 Gill was one of the few softball players who also played soccer for Deem, and many of the other girls didn’t quite know what to expect.

 “When I took over this job, 95 percent of them only knew me as this loud soccer coach who makes players run, and there was a lot of apprehension about me taking over, but they handled it with such grace and dignity and gave me an opportunity to prove myself as a coach,” Deem said. “Once they realized I wasn’t just a soccer coach who wanted to coach softball, that I actually knew the game, I was able to create some bonds and relationships with this senior class that have been special. I could be myself as a coach more, which allows them to be themselves as players.”

 “I think it’s important and significant, too, that each of us has our own role and we all fill that role to the best of our ability,” Petrie added.

 The seven seniors were a large part of Boyle’s success last year — that team had only two seniors — and they say they still have plenty of room for improvement.

 “I feel like that’s always a yes, just for any team, there’s always things you can improve on,” Petrie said.

 The goal is simply to play better, win more, go farther, even though only two teams went farther than they did last season.

 “We want to do better than what we did last year,” Hasty said.

Area Preseason Softball Capsules

BOYLE COUNTY
Coach: Brian Deem
2012 record: 33-13, lost to Lone Oak in state tournament consolation final
Top returnees: Heather Hasty Sr. C; Hannan Miniard, Sr. P-1B; Elysse Petrie, Sr. P-1B; Lauren Richards, Jr. SS-3B.

BURGIN
Coach: Matt Grimes
2012 record: 2-15, lost to Mercer County in 46th District semifinal
Top returnees: Elizabeth Adams, Fr. P-SS (.350, .550 SLG); Julia Hagen, So. 1B (.419, .471 OBP); Olivia May, Jr. C (.346).

CASEY COUNTY
Coach: Bryan Cross (first year)
2012 record: 3-19, lost to Pulaski County in 47th District semifinal
Top returnees: Raven Clements, Sr. C-CF; Mariah Richardson, Jr. 2B; Tia Smith, Sr. SS; Amber Wesley, Jr. P.

DANVILLE
Coach: Kenny Young (first year)
2012 record: 18-18, lost to Mercer County in 12th Region semifinal
Top returnees: Emma Breitenbach, Sr. OF; Kayla Breitenbach, Sr. IF; Taylor Estes, Sr. C (.500, .628 OBP, 5 HR); Kasey Young, Sr. IF (.500, .617 OBP, 9 HR),

GARRARD COUNTY
Coach: Jeff Meadors
2012 record: 2-26, lost to Boyle County in 45th District semifinal
Top returnees: Logan Ellis, Jr. IF-OF; Sydney Pozzuto, Sr. OF.

LINCOLN COUNTY
Coach: Kevin Bandura
2012 record: 18-17, lost to Danville in 45th District semifinal
Top returnees: Morgan Cooper, Jr. P-IF, (.393, 44 H, 35 abriel, Fr. P-IF (17-12, 2.72 ERA, 162K, .318, 35 RBI);
MERCER COUNTY
Coach: Michael Shewmaker (first year)
2012 record: 30-8, lost to Boyle County in 12th Region championship
Top returnees: Michaela Carter, Sr. OF; Ashley Harley, Sr. C; Megan Hilbert, Sr. P-IF; Taylor Schroeder, Sr. OF.

— Compiled by Mike Marsee