Potomac — Churchill head softball coach James Collins stood near the third base dugout during a recent practice and answered questions about the Bulldogs’ 2012 season outlook. When asked about last year’s winning record and how long it had been since the program accomplished such a feat, Collins turned to assistant Mike Northridge for verification.
“Mike,” said Collins, getting the attention of Northridge, who was hitting balls to Churchill position players. “Last year was the first winning season since ’04?”
“Since 2000,” Northridge replied, adding four years of feel good to the achievement.
After clarification, more than one Bulldog player responded with “Woooo!” while another pointed out the team had snapped a drought of “10 years.”
The Bulldogs enter the 2012 season with a revamped confidence stemming from a year of winning softball. The Bulldogs produced a 9-7 regular-season record in 2011 before falling to Walter Johnson in the opening round of the 4A West Region playoffs. Junior shortstop Katie Jenkins said earning the program’s first better-than-.500 season since 2000 changes the team’s mentality.
“[Our outlook is] we’re really not that bad,” she said. “We’re actually good and we can have a winning season and it should be normal. It boosts our confidence.”
Jenkins transferred from Holy Cross prior to her sophomore season. She’s one of the better athletes on the team and her softball IQ helps with her leadership ability.
“She’s just one of the top players in county and therefore she’s a great asset to have for me,” Collins said. “If I’m having trouble explaining something to a girl exactly how I want it done, Katie can model it. … She’s just a good leader. She leads by example: this is how you do it, this is how it should be done, this is the right way to do it. She’ll even come to me in practice with something I might not see if I’m working with a couple girls. She’ll be like, ‘You might want to take her aside because she’s palming the ball’ or something — little things that she picks up on being out in the field that others don’t.”
Adams played second base last year but volunteered to move to catcher for her senior season.
“She’s really good,” Collins said. “I’m talking all-county good.”
Adams, who will bat leadoff, said transitioning to catcher has been a new challenge.
“It’s definitely really different,” she said. “I don’t want to say you control the game, but you always have to be on your toes. There’s never a play that you’re not in.”
While Jenkins and Adams are two key players with varsity experience, Churchill will also receive an influx of young talent from last year’s JV team, which finished 12-2. The Churchill roster is composed of two seniors, two juniors, seven sophomores and one freshman.
“It’s a group that’s used to winning, that knows how to work hard and what it takes to win,” Collins said of last year’s JV players now on varsity, “and they’re willing to do it.”
In the pitching circle will be sophomore Nora Cleary. What Cleary lacks in velocity she makes up for in accuracy, which is fine by Collins.
“She’s not going to blow it by anybody yet, but she’s got two more years to get that,” Collins said. “Right now, I’m happy with accuracy — accuracy over velocity.”
Sophomore Rachel Casper will start at third base, freshman Kinsey Linton will be the second baseman and senior Liz Berriman will start the season at first base until sophomore Dana Harris returns from injury. When Harris comes back, Berriman will likely share time with Casper at third.
Sophomore Alexis Tannenbaum will start in left field, sophomore Alex Votaw will start in center field and junior Sara Gallagher will be in right field.
“[Last season’s winning record] changes the expectations. We want to go from being a bottom of-the-pack team to a middle-to-top-of-the-pack team and then keep building on that until we get to be a top-of-the-pack team.”
— Churchill softball coach James Collins
“[Last season’s winning record] changes the expectations,” Collins said. “We want to go from being a bottom-of-the-pack team to a middle-to-top-of-the-pack team and then keep building on that until we get to be a top-of-the-pack team. We want to be able to compete with the powerhouses in the county, and the way that we do that is we have girls … working to get better year-round.”