All of the sports at De Soto High School have changed this year, including the softball team.
Seven varsity seniors graduated last year, some moving on to play at the collegiate level. The team will be changed,  since there’s a minimal number of freshman girls trying out.
“There was a lot of familiarity on the team, because those girls had been playing together for four years, always polished their skills in the off-season and never stopped trying to get better. But at the same time, we have an exciting new group coming in,” Head coach Junelle Woolery said.
Along with winning the state title last year, the Wildcats have a high-set bar.
“Winning state was awesome, but the goal is always to win league, for the girls to keep getting better, be good teammates and have fun doing it,” Woolery said.
The players they lost made up most of the varsity team, but this is not daunting to Woolery.
“Even though we had a lot of key players last year, sometimes change is good, and I think if the new group is willing to put in the work, we will really surprise some people who counted us out, because we lost so many girls last year,” Woolery said.
The seniors that left made up not only most of the varsity team, but almost the entire varsity infield, which means everything is “up for grabs” and that the fans and players will “definitely see some new faces on Varsity this year.”
Even though the seniors will be missed, Woolery has an optimistic outlook on the new team.
“Coach Wible and I are definitely excited about the upcoming season. The freshman coming in have a lot of talent, and the players coming back this year were ready to compete at a varsity level, even if they were on junior varsity last year. Like I said, everything is wide open this season, and if everyone is willing to keep working hard and putting in more and more effort to become better ball players, who knows how far we’ll go?”