“We’ll have some good softball for the years to come here around town,” said Cooper head coach Landon Winton.
That’s because some of the best softball talent in the 806 resides in the sophomore class. Lubbock High’s Chloe Read has a theory as to why that is.
“Well I know that we’ve all kinda played together,” said Read. “And we’ve all had the same coaching so that might have had something to do when we were younger.”
Her coach thinks it might be more internal for the players.
“I wanna say all these sophomores around us,” said Lubbock High head coach Sherri Culwell. “I mean you look at Cooper’s and you look at our’s, and I think above all else, they just love the game and they wanna go out and play and have fun at it.”
All this young talent though has an effect on the older players, but in a positive way.
“It pushes them to be better,” said Lubbock High sophomore Moriah Garza. “And get better and it creates a competition between everyone and I think that’s good.”
Winton is excited about the possibilities in the future.
“I just think it’s fun to kinda know that you’ve got some girls for a couple more years,” said Winton. “And kinda playing and piece together the rest of your team and have that solid foundation for years to come.”
But these girls are wise beyond their years and know they can’t just depend on this year’s performance as they continue through their playing careers.
“I think we’ll definitely have more leadership like characteristics to be able to lead the team when we’re seniors,” said Cooper sophomore Autumn White. “But we will need more talent like in our sophomore positions when they’re sophomores that’ll have to help us.”
“It makes me want to be even better than I am now,” said Lubbock High sophomore Christa Ramirez. “Because when you are a senior you want to be the example for the underclassmen and I think it’ll push me to do even better.”