International Falls played only 17 games last season, its lowest total since 2002.
Horrendous early-season weather forced the Broncos to play a shortened, compact schedule, and things are already looking different in 2010.
“We’re doing things we’ve never been able to do. We’re outside playing ball,” said Broncos head coach Kevin Gordon, who enters his 12 season after taking over the program as its inaugural coach in 1999.
The Broncos rarely had an opportunity to practice outside before last year’s opener — a 12-1 win over Chisholm on April 17 — and Gordon estimated at the end of last season they had only seven outdoor practices.
The unseasonably warm temperatures and dry fields were welcomed with open arms in every Borderland spring sport this year, but especially on the softball diamond.
“It’s going to be a big adjustment at first, but we should be pretty good at the end once everyone gets used to each other,” said captain Sydney Gordon, talking about the influx of youth in the program.
Gone is All-State second teamer Danika Stelton and cleanup hitter Courtney Scholler. Stelton won the bulk of the games on the mound last season and anchored the batting order from the leadoff spot, while Scholler, last year’s second leading hitter behind Stelton, played catcher.
Coach Gordon praised his team’s versatility this season, admitting as many as three players could catch and four could pitch, but the lineup hadn’t been narrowed down as of Thursday night, just five days before the opener Tuesday at BEST.
“And that’s a process that’s going to evolve,” he said. “We see lots of things we need to work on in practice and we see a lot of good things.”
Sydney Gordon and Kara Kennedy are the captains, while six other players return after seeing extended time on varsity last season — Amanda Hofius, Olivia King, Tori Owen, Morgan Bruess, Monica Hasbargen and Jynni Discenza. Newcomers Jessica Ringhofer, Olivia Santee, Shawna Misner and Hailee Pollard are expected to make the biggest impact in a young group of up-and-coming talent.
“You have to be patient and walk through some of the things with them,” Kennedy said.
Sydney Gordon, Hofius and Bruess are expected to shoulder the pitching load.
“The thing I like about this team is where will they go with what they have and who’s going to step up,” Kevin Gordon said. “We’re looking for someone to step up and I think there are some candidates there.”
The captains and coach Gordon all agreed, however, that things should be better by the end of the season.
“This is a good group of girls that have the potential to develop through the course of our season,” coach Gordon said.
“It will be interesting to see where we start and how we finish, because of being able to get outside so early. Our entire group is excited about being on our field probably the earliest we have ever been.”
