The Western Nebraska Community College softball team will get their season going this weekend at a tournament in Brownwood, Texas, against four quality Texas schools on Friday and Saturday.
WNCC opens the season against Cisco College Friday at 9:30 a.m. MST followed by a contest with Navarro College. Saturday's competition will have the team facing Midland College and Western Texas College.
WNCC head coach Courtney Medina said the team is excited to get the season going.
"The team is super excited to get going. The girls got straight to work since being back on campus, so we're just excited to get to start playing," Medina said. "The Texas teams are well coached and athletic. It's really good competition for us and an opportunity for the girls to go compete. We're just excited to be out in some warmer weather and compete for each other."
WNCC will put a solid lineup out on the field this season with a mixture of players. WNCC returns just two players from a year ago in sophomores Devyn Priselac of Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Baylie Krueger of Swink, Colorado.
The Cougars also have two transfers that will be key players that competed at Lamar Community College a year ago. They include Madilynn VanRiper of Farmington, New Mexico, and Katelynn Czerpak of Aurora, Colorado. Medina said these four have really shown leadership on the team this year.
"Baylie and Devyn have done a phenomenal job of embodying what we wanted our culture to look like. They are the first ones to jump in and help," Medina said. "They have been great for all the new girls and showing them the ropes of how and why we do things. Katelynn and Madi have been amazing as well. It is their first year in our program but you wouldn't know it. They picked up on everything so quickly and then became players that the freshmen can go to. All four of our sophomores are huge servant leaders. They work so hard, they show up early, they stay late, they are the first ones to volunteer when things need to get done, and we are very lucky as a program to have such awesome humans and ball players leading us."
Besides these four, there are plenty of other talent and Medina said there is depth and excited to see what this team can do this year.
"We have a great group and a lot of talent. We have players that have speed. We have talent in the circle and we've got girls that can hit, but this group has done an even better job at relying on their work ethic over their talent," Medina said. "They work hard, they show up every day to practice and give each other 100% of whatever is in their tank for the day. They're a really great group and Coach (Nayeli) Diaz and I are very thankful to have such a good group of young women we get to be around every day."
Besides Priselac, Krueger, VanRiper, and Czerpak, the freshmen have been showing progress.
The freshmen players include Bailey Legere from Manitou Springs, Colorado; Mykah Klumpp of Valley Center, Kansas; Anastasia Molina of Aurora, Colorado; Randi Mitchell of Greeley, Colorado; Kayli Cooper of North Battlefield, Saskatchewan, Canada; Sierra Hilgner of Divide, Colorado; Chayse Cronquist of Blackfoot, Idaho; Bella Pacheco of Laramie, Wyoming; Jenika Fuentes of Sweetwater, Texas; Kelcey Zubiate of Forsan, Texas; and Reagan Werth of Farmington, New Mexico.
"We have a lot of talent, but even better work ethic when it comes to our freshmen," Medina said. "They all grew up really quickly and have bought into what our program is about. Each one of them brings something different to the team and I think the diversity that we have as a team is what makes this group so fun to coach and be around."
The pitching core this year will be led by three freshmen who Medina said all compliment each other well.
"We have three really solid arms that are all very different and compliment each other very well," she said. "Coach Diaz has done an amazing job with the pitching staff and from where they started in the fall to where they are now is a night and day difference which speaks so highly of Coach Diaz and the relationships she's built with both the pitchers and the catchers. They all communicate very effectively and it's fun to watch them compete."
The three pitchers are Cooper, Fuentes, and Pacheco.
The catching position also has depth with three good arms, including transfer VanRiper, along with freshman Hilgner and Mitchell.
The other infield and outfield positions will be made up of the other players and the players are talented that they could play a lot of positions. Plus the catchers and pitchers could also play other positions. That is what Medina likes about this team, the depth that this team has to play anyplace.
"This team is a group that genuinely has the best interest of their teammates at heart," she said. "They are very energetically connected and work together so well. We might be young in age but the bond this group has is really special."
This weekend will the team's first competition of the year while many of the Texas schools have already been playing for three weeks. Still, Medina said the keys to winning is just competing and having fun.
"We talk about it every day and it's just to go compete and don't get too far ahead of ourselves," she said. "We take the game one pitch at a time. Win the pitch, execute the current play and the game will take care of itself. We preach the 1% better mentality so as long as we keep getting 1% better every day we have done what we needed to. Stay together, work for each other and regardless of the outcome learn from the experience."
After this weekend, the Cougars will open Region IX play when they head to LaJunta, Colorado, to face Otero Junior College. WNCC's first home game is set for Sunday, March 3 when they host Dakota College at Bottineau.
"The goal for the team is to just go compete and have fun," Medina said. "Everyone wants to win a region title, but we don't focus on things that happen in May when we can control how hard we work today. The goal for the team is continue to get 1% better every day."