13 returners will give Lady Yoe softball potential for great season in 2022
Last year, the Cameron Lady Yoe softball team had a record of 10-18 and barely missed the playoffs. This year, they hope to get over that hump and make it into the postseason.
Coach Chris Sommerfield is optimistic about his team’s chances and believes his team has the potential to have a great season. He strongly feels they can overcome the challenges of playing in a tough district and can achieve a successful winning season.
“I think we have a chance to be a really competitive team,” Sommerfield said. “We just got to make sure we put in the work and be mentally ready to be in tough situations. Obviously, our district is very tough, and so just having talent is not good enough sometimes. We got to make sure we’re ready to commit to the hard work that it’s going to take.”
Another obstacle they had last season was that they were very young. They only had three upperclassman, only one of them was a senior (Avery Wadlington), who left during the season due to personal reasons.
This year along with some incoming freshman, they will have a whopping 13 returners from last year with two of them being seniors. Those two seniors are McKenzi Lara and Mia Wimmer. Sommerfield feels those returners have shown great improvement over the offseason and can only get better having last year’s experiences under their belt.
“I think just with some of the freshman and sophomores we had last year, I think that they’ve put in a lot of work this summer playing, and I think they all have a chance to take a big step forward,” Sommerfield said. “Just being a year older, especially going from freshman to sophomore can be a very big transition for people as far as taking the next step in success.”
Last year in the offseason and the season, the team and the country was plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, they are getting back to a regular offseason and hope to have normal regular season. Coach Summerfield feels strongly that a big part of making this offseason better is having the number of returning players that they have.
“Definitely it feels better than it did obviously with COVID,” Sommerfield said. “We have a lot returning kids and so that’s made this offseason transition a lot easier, and we’re actually able to pick up faster than we were last year at this time.”
The Lady Yoe began their scrimmages on Saturday, Jan. 29, as they hosted a dual scrimmage with the Killeen Lady Kangaroos and the Lady Eagles of Hillsboro. They then hosted another dual scrimmage on Jan. 31 with the Giddings Lady Buffaloes and the Troy Trojanettes, which began at 5 p.m.