Softball team turning the corner to success

by Eric Keppeler
Grand Island Dispatch, May 11, 2007

When the 2007 high school softball season started last month, first-year Grand Island coach Pat Lester was the first to admit that his Vikings weren’t likely to be mistaken for contenders for the Niagara Frontier League crown.

Realistically, the Vikings probably still are not going to be in the hunt for the league title, yet the improvement over last year is like night and day.

“Everybody started with a clean slate this year,” Lester said. “The expectations are pretty high, but we know it’s going to be a building process. We can’t expect everything to fall into place all at once. But we’ve gotten better every game.”

After a few years at the bottom of the league standings, the Vikings have already doubled last year’s win total by winning two of their first eight games. And even the ones they’ve lost have been close.

The players credit a new commitment to defense and fundamentals for the improvement.

“Last year, we were getting killed – it was like 18-2 and 17-0,” said junior Shari Geblein, a four-year starter at third base. “Now it’s 5-3 and 3-0. We’re giving other teams a fight now. Our errors were insane last year – we were just giving teams runs. Now we’re much more comfortable.”

The other main ingredient in this season has been confidence.

Lester has shown confidence in his players, and they now believe they can succeed, and that makes all of the difference.

“Everyone brings a new attitude to the practices and the games,” Geblein said. “We’re all ready to play, and we believe we can win games now. Last year, we were down in the dumps and we didn’t believe we could win, but Lester changed that all around.”

Lester is quick to deflect the credit for the turnaround to the players, whom he says have put in the time and effort to improve.

“I’m very impressed with the way the girls have responded,” Lester said. “I can’t take credit for this. The girls are coming together as a team. Every game has been close. We’ve got a lot of talent here, and it’s really coming along. The attitude is very positive”

For example, two of Grand Island’s six losses came to defending league champion Kenmore West. Last year, the Vikes lost by a combined 30 runs in the two games to the Blue Devils.

This year, Grand Island lost 4-0 at home and 3-0 Monday at West.

“He pushes us to do better,” Geblein said. “We have the potential to do so much better, and we believe that now. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re getting better and that’s because of Lester.”

They still lose games, and that’s ultimately what Lester hopes to rectify, but the Vikings think they’re on the right track.

“It’s tough losing games by a lot of runs,” Lester said. “It might be even tougher losing by only a few. But it’s been a good year so far, and I hope we can keep it going.”