North Douglas Softball
A North Douglas pitcher fi res away during an indoor practice.
Bailey Holcomb reaches for a ground ball at a recent practice.
Team Rundown:
Team Perspective with Amy Dooley:
With just seconds to play in the
Skyline League third-place girls
basketball game this winter, North
Douglas’ softball season was drasti-
cally altered. As Nicki Derrick fouled
an Elkton player in an attempt to ex-
tend the game, she tore her ACL.
Last year, Derrick a freshman last
season, was named both 1A state
player of the year and pitcher of the
year as she led the Warriors to a state
softball title. In addition to throwing
a no-hitter in the state playoffs, Der-
rick was also an offensive threat and
hit over 10 homeruns last season.
With Derrick out for the year and
the graduation of an all-state short-
stop, catcher and second basemen,
the Warriors come in to the season
with questions. Regardless of what
they are missing, North Douglas is
returning three all-state players in
Sofia Alcantar (center field), Sofia
Black (third base) and Riley Black
(first place). They also have Hope.
“We have Hope Morgan, who was
our second pitcher last year. Has a
lot of skill, lot of ability. I think she’s
starting on a lot of other teams in
our league. It’s a blow (to lose Nicki)
but I think we’ll be alright. She’s a
capable backup,” said assistant coach
Daron Dooley.
The team is also adds Whitney
Anderson who is joining the team
from Crow. With no softball team
at Crow, Anderson played on the
school’s baseball team last season
but will now be joining the Warriors
via co-op.
North Douglas will be in a battle
with the 2A teams in their league
that include Oakland and Monroe.
On the outlook for the season:
You know, after you finish a state
championship it’s always hard to
come back and try to top that. And
I don’t think that’s the mentality we
have. We just have the mentality to
come in and have fun and build a
good team again.
No one can replace Nicki. We just
have to not have the mentality that
we can’t do this without her. We have
to have the mentality that we can do
this for Nicki. So I think that’s im-
portant.
The key to their success:
We work really hard on our fun-
damentals. We’ll have a fundamental
hitting practice. Before we get in the
cage we will show that we can swing
the bat the right way. Or field the ball
Go
Wa
rr
ior
s!
11
the right way before we field some
grounders.
On a teammate she’s excited for:
I like Sofia. She’s our centerfielder
from last year. She’s really fast. She
was just a freshman last year so she
has a lot of room to grow. I’m excit-
ed to see where she can go with it.
On getting a new teammate from Crow:
We’ve actually never been in a co-
op before. They’ve had them with
Elkton but this is our first time. She’s
super sweet and seems like she’s a re-
ally good player so we’re excited to
see what she can do. If she wants to
play, we’ll let her.