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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2015)
New faces, new philosophies, new challenges W hile preparing stories for the spring sports tab together, I noticed something rather unexpected: how many area teams had new coaches this year. The Hermiston baseball, track, girls tennis, boys tennis and girls golf teams all have new head coaches. The Umatilla softball team has a new head guy. Six new head coaches DQG¿YHDWRQHVFKRRO That’s probably close to unprecedented in the area and creates some interesting things to keep an eye on as the spring unfolds. A new head coach presents different dynamics, based on the situation. For instance, new Hermiston baseball coach Lance Hawkins was an assistant at Hermiston for 15 years. He already knows the program, the players, the league and the landscape as a whole. Monty Williams, new Umatilla softball coach, is fresh. He’s still learning names, learning the league and learning the landscape. These things present different challenges for players and coaches. Sometimes change is a good thing. As I’ve mentioned before, my high school football team was terrible for two years until we got a head coach who turned things around. He brought a fresh voice, fresh concepts and pure enthusiasm to the team, and we bought into it. We truly felt like the new guy had our backs and would go to war for us. We reciprocated, and it propelled us to the SOD\RIIVLQKLV¿UVW\HDU7KH program has only gotten better since then. In baseball, a similar thing happened. Our baseball program was in shambles a year before I got there, and, with a new coach and largely the same players, we reached the playoffs in his first year and five years later played for a state championship. He also brought with him a fresh voice, fresh concepts and pure enthusiasm. It was the same situation with the same result. Sometimes transitioning to a new coaches can be GLI¿FXOW:HJRWDQHZ basketball coach in my sophomore year, and things did not go so well. I think the previous head coach was politely pushed out because the district implemented new policies: He wasn’t a SPORTS SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2015 HERMISTONHERALD.COM A9 PREP SOFTBALL • SCHEDULE SAM BARBEE FROM THE SIDELINES Sports reporter teacher and had no desire to be. The guys on the team that year just didn’t buy into the new coach. He brought a fresh voice and fresh concepts, but they differed from what we thought R. A. Long basketball was about. The program suffered because of it and still hasn’t entirely recovered. Three sports, three coaching changes, differing UHVXOWV&RDFKLQJFKDQJHV are unique. I’m interested in seeing what the new coaches will do. Some, like new Hermiston girls tennis coach Jason Sivey, aren’t planning on an overhaul. He said he’s continuing the same sort of coaching style and philosophies as the previous regime. New Hermiston track coach Emily Strot is building on Bulldog football coach Mark Hodges’ love of acronyms and infusing them into her own program. Her TRAIN like a Bulldog philosophy has gone well. A couple of seniors have fully bought into the Trust, Resilience, Ambition, Intensity, No excuses program and are giving others reason to buy in, too. Still, it’s harder for a new coach to come into a successful program and insert his or her will. It was easy for my new football and baseball coaches to convince us because we were bad. It was hard for the new basketball coach to convince us because we had just gone to state. Other team’s have different experiences. Though, Hermiston baseball was pretty good last year, Hawkins was around. Players already know and respect him. His philosophies are familiar and accepted. He’s not a new coach: He’s a new head coach, which is a subtle, yet important, distinction. He won’t have to work hard to win the players over. He already has. ,¶OO¿QLVKWKHFROXPQOLNH I did my last one: Here’s to a good spring, coaches. I hope everything goes well. —Sam Barbee is the sports reporter for the Hermiston Herald and can be reached at (541) 564- 4542 or sbarbee@hermis- tonherald.com GO SEE IT Saturday, March 21 Baseball Umatilla @ Dufur, 11 a.m. Umatilla vs. Kennedy @ Dufur, 1 p.m. 6WDQ¿HOG YV &DVFDGH /HDYHQZRUWK # &DVFDGH (WA), 1:30 p.m. 6WDQ¿HOG#&DVKPHUHSP Sunday, March 22 Lacrosse +HUPLVWRQYV&DQE\SP Monday, March 23 Golf Hermiston @ Grandview Invite, 9 a.m. Baseball Hermiston vs. Redmond (DH), 11 a.m. Softball +HUPLVWRQYV2UHJRQ&LW\#6SULQJ%UHDN,QYLWD- tional, 12 p.m. Hermiston vs. Franklin @ Spring Break Invitation- al, 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 24 Softball Hermiston vs. Milwaukie @ Spring Break Invita- tional, 10 a.m. +HUPLVWRQYV&ODFNDPDV#6SULQJ%UHDN,QYLWD- tional, 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 25 Lacrosse Hermiston vs. Richland 5 p.m. Baseball Hermiston vs. Kamiakin, 4 p.m. SAM BARBEE PHOTO Hermiston third baseman Elory Jones slides in under the tag of Post Falls catcher Abi Melton for Hermiston’s third run of a 6-4 come-from-behind victory at Rocky Heights Elementary School on Friday. Hermiston swept the Trojans after beating them 10-6 in game 1 of the double header. HERMISTON SOFTBALL SWEEPS POST FALLS Second win comes by default BY SAM BARBEE HERMISTON HERALD Down 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth in the second game of a double header Friday, the Hermiston soft- ball team needed a rally. Post Falls (ID) start- ing pitcher Brooke Bow- ers had kept Hermiston at bay all game, holding the high-powered Bulldogs to just the two runs on two hits. In the fourth inning, however, the Bulldogs popped for three. Jaime Hinkley singled sharply into left with two outs, plat- ing Elizabeth Weems and Alex Barton, to put Herm- iston up for good at 5-4. Post Falls went on its own rally in the top of the sixth to take an 8-5 lead, but the game was called due to darkness, with the score reverting back to that of WKH FRPSOHWHG ¿IWK LQQLQJ giving Hermiston the 6-4 default win. In her second and lon- gest varsity outing, Breyan- na Naylor picked up the win after two innings of shutout ball. The junior, who was on the junior varsity squad last spring, struck out one and threw just 26 pitches in her two frames of work. ³,W¶V D JRRG FRQ¿GHQFH boost for our kids,” Herm- iston (2-1) head coach Kylee Lete said after the game. “We got some young SOD\HUV RQ WKH ¿HOG ULJKW now, and every advantage we can have (we’ll take). We had a lot of young kids step up in big ways for us tonight. I see them being excited about that, too.” Hinkley was 1-for-3 with the single and two RBIs, and Abi Drotzmann SAM BARBEE PHOTO Hermiston junior Breyanna Naylor comes to the plate with a pitch during Hermiston’s 6-4 victo- ry over the Post Falls (ID) Trojans on Friday at Rocky Heights Elementary Schools. Naylor went two scoreless innings in her second varsity appearance. was 2-for-3, Mikayla Ko- pacz had an RBI single and ¿YHRWKHU%XOOGRJVQRWFKHG hits. It was a group effort to produce the six runs, which LQFOXGHGEXQWVVDFUL¿FHÀ\ they’re capable of doing the balls and RBI knocks. same thing.” “The bottom part of our That bottom of the or- lineup was really young der, largely made up of ju- today,” Drotzmann said. SEE BULLDOGS/A10 “That showed them that Bulldog softball team has high hopes this season BY SAM BARBEE HERMISTON HERALD After reaching the state ¿QDOV WZR \HDUV DJR WKH Hermiston softball team didn’t have the season it was hoping for in 2014. Inconsistency plagued the Bulldogs’ season, forcing them into fourth place in the &ROXPELD5LYHU&RQIHUHQFH with a 2-10 record, 6-18 overall, and they lost their last nine games of the year. 7KH &ROXPELD 5LYHU &RQIHUHQFH LV D WUDGLWLRQ- ally strong softball league. Last year, Pendleton won the state championship, and Hood River Valley reached WKH VHPL¿QDOV 7KH \HDU before, in 2013, Hermiston was the state runner-up in a 1-0 heartbreaker to Sandy. In 2012, Pendleton again won the state champion- ship, but it was The Dalles that reached the semis. In three years, all four &5&WHDPVKDYHUHDFKHGDW OHDVW WKH VHPL¿QDO URXQG WKUHH WLPHV D &5& WHDP PDGH WKH ¿QDOV DQG WZR state championships came of those three appearances. With that tough league comes talented players, and Hermiston plans to show off its fair share heading into this season. “We have a lot of ath- leticism,” third-year head coach Kylee Lete said. “If we can overcome some of the knowledge of the game and we can grow in that area, we’re going to be a competitive ball club. We just have to grow to under- stand the game and deep- en our knowledge of the game.” The Bulldogs expect quite a bit out of at least three players. 6HQLRU RXW¿HOGHU $EL Drotzmann has commit- ted to play softball at Lin- ¿HOG &ROOHJH QH[W VSULQJ Mikayla Kopacz scored two runs without getting a hit out of the three hole in Hermiston’s opening day loss to Ridgeview earlier in the week, and Ashley Mos- er, batting second, went 2-for-4 and also scored two runs. Hermiston lost that game 12-7, but it was DJRRG¿UVWVWDUW/HWHVDLG and a good indication of what is coming. The softball team lost some key hurlers from the past two years, however, DQGZLOOKDYHWR¿QGDZD\ to replace them. Freshman Julissa Almaguer threw six solid innings in the open- ing-game loss, and Lete has some others who will get a look in the circle, too. “We saw (Almagu- er) work all off season (and) work last year as an eighth-grader,” Lete said. “We gave her an oppor- tunity, and she impressed (Tuesday). She kept her compsure really well, and as far as our ace goes, I don’t know. We have some pretty competitive candi- DWHVIRUWKDWVSRWEXW,GH¿- nitely think she’s going to be an asset to our pitching staff this year.” Offensively, the Bull- dogs have a number of left-handed slap hitters who can run, switch hitters and power throughout the line- up. Drotzmann put up spar- kling numbers last spring, batting .459 and an impres- sive slugging percentage of .838. To put that number in context, Babe Ruth slugged .847 in 1920, a record that stood for nearly a century. This balance, plus Drot- zmann, Lete said, is going to be something Hermiston will rely on this season, and the seven runs earlier in the week is proof of that. “All of (our hitters) have power,” Lete said. “The lefties have speed. It’s nice. We have options this year as far as our order goes. It’s not just power. It’s speed (and) power.” Lete said what will cer- tainly help Hermiston this season is a desire to reverse last year’s fortunes. The Bulldogs have had a taste of championship-level soft- ball and want to get there again. “The girls (were) real- ly eager to start this year,” Lete said. “In the off sea- son, they did a lot of work on their own working out, and that showed (Tuesday in a 12-7 loss). Just as far as the beginning of the year goes, they have a lot of things that they are eager to accomplish and wipe it clean from last year.”