Emily Prendergast

“Hey, George!” exclaimed senior Sara Genoways as she bounded into her bedroom. Silence ensued.

“ . . . George?”

Silence.

“Darn it, George!” said Genoways, picking up a large yellow softball decorated with inspirational phrases and raising it in her fist to glare at its orange laces.

“Why aren’t you ever supportive of me? I’m just trying to be friendly!”

Silence.

Don’t worry, Genoways isn’t schizophrenic. She was simply carrying out a task assigned to her by varsity softball captain Cassie Kleinsmith.

Kleinsmith wanted the team to focus on what was then the upcoming district tournament games, so she gave them all softballs to write messages on and told them to “become one with the ball” by talking to it during the week leading up to districts.

Although the season ended at districts, team members will take away with them many memories.

“We were all sitting at Sarah Lathrop’s house eating dinner and Sara Leoffelholz flipped backward on her chair,” said senior Jaime Anderson. “Then right after that Brittany Stovie fell backward and knocked over a bird bath.”

The team had a lot of fun together this season.

“All of the girls were really funny,” Genoways said.

The varsity softball team ended their season with a 14 wins and 17 losses. However, the team will have much more than a record to show for their hard work during the season.

“This was one of the best teams I’ve ever played for, out of my Marian and summer teams. Everyone got along really well, and it was a good rebuilding year,” said Anderson.

Genoways agreed. “I was satisfied, even though we didn’t end up winning. We had a lot of good games.”

JV softball ended their season with 6 wins, 8 losses and one tie. The players enjoyed learning about the sport and had fun with the team.

“I thought it was a really fun season and being a freshman, I made a lot of new friends,” JV pitcher Missy Dodendorf said.