CALEDONIA — Talented is the first word that comes to Nicole Kifer’s mind when she is asked about the Caledonia High School fast-pitch softball team.
The senior outfielder isn’t being cocky. Instead, her answer is an honest assessment of a team that has won two playoff series and is playing some of its best ball of the season.
But Kifer is hard-pressed to find the right words to explain why this season’s team has been able to come together and make the most of its potential. If you didn’t know any better, all you had to do was look at Kifer’s shoes for the explanation. Tied to the black shoelaces on Kifer’s black cleats, a touch of color offers a glimpse as to why this season’s squad has delivered one of the program’s finest efforts in recent memory.
Part of that splash — in a rainbow-colored ribbon — is on Kifer’s left shoe. The other burst — a green ribbon with black polka dots — is on Kifer’s right cleat and is meant to honor former Caledonia High physics teacher Terry Wiygul, who died Wednesday at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
All of the Lady Confederates hope to have those green ribbons affixed to their uniforms at 6 tonight when Caledonia plays host to Senatobia in Game 1 of their best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A State tournament playoff series. Game 2 of the series will be at 1 p.m. Saturday in Senatobia. If needed, Game 3 would follow approximately 30 minutes after the previous game.
Kifer said junior catcher Cassie Obman gave the players the rainbow-colored ribbons on Senior Night to signify hope. She said the Lady Confederates received the green ribbons on St. Patrick’s Day, and that they will wear them to honor Wiygul because green was her favorite color.
But the ribbons have come to represent more than just another dash of color or an accessory to the uniform.
“I believe it does bring us more together as a team,” Kifer said. “We used to do the eye black and stuff. It does help with teamwork, and that shows us how we are a family still.
“This year it feels like we are more open and if we have a problem we talk up front to them. With girls, that helps a lot, not having attitudes and things like that.”
From the beginning
Kifer said she doesn’t know how that mentality took hold, but she said she remembers its started at the beginning of the year and has strengthened throughout the season. The mentality has become even stronger thanks to victories against Amory and Cleveland in the postseason. Caledonia secured a playoff spot thanks in part to a grand slam by freshman Hope Harbin that lifted the team to a win against Leake Central in its regular-season finale. A 1-0 victory by Kosciusko against West Lauderdale helped Caledonia earn the No. 3 seed and final playoff spot out of Region 4.
“Our confidence has boosted a lot this year,” Kifer said. “Just because one mistake happens on the field doesn’t mean we all make the same mistake.
“We work together as a team more. We have more communication. We get along better. We just get together so easily. We just understand each other somehow.”
Kifer said trust has been a key ingredient to the team’s success. She said she doesn’t know how to explain it other than to say it feels like “family” this season. She said a 5-0 start buoyed the confidence of everyone. The confidence dipped a little after that, but she said players picked each other up to help the Lady Confederates get to this point.
“I felt from the very beginning we could have done it,” Kifer said. “We all have leadership in us, and we all pick each other like that.”
Kifer and classmates Alex Burns and Hope Burton have played integral roles in helping set the example. Kifer said Burton pumps the team up with her effort in the circle. She said Burns, who plays third base, is the team’s motivational speaker.
Kifer, who plays left field, considers herself someone who “backs up everybody and pumps them up.” She said that mentality is prevalent up and down the lineup, which is a key reason why the team has avoided the typical pitfalls some squads encounter in a season.
“You know how girls are and they talk behind each other’s backs and everything like that,” Kifer said. “I think this year we have become better with communication. We don’t talk behind each other’s backs. We have each other’s backs.”
Team concept
Obman, who has a rainbow-colored ribbon on her right cleat, agrees. She said she had a green ribbon on her uniform, too, but it fell off her catching gear. She said she expects to wear a green ribbon tonight.
“It definitely symbolizes it because I made sure all of our varsity, at least, had a bow,” Obman said of the ribbons. “It is just kind of a like a bond we have now. … It makes us feel more together.”
Obman said she gave some of the younger players ribbons, too, to make them feel a part of the varsity squad. The ribbons epitomize how the players have embraced the team concept. Obman said that feeling of togetherness stems from the seniors, who she said have been “best friends forever.” She said the team has tried to maintain that feeling by doing a lot of things together.
“This year, it just seems like we have a good chemistry on the team,” Obman said. “Coach (Robin Elmore) has said that she thinks this is our strongest hitting lineup. I think that plays a big role in it, and we have so many years playing together that we have gotten to know each other and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we know how to pick each other up. That plays a big role in it.”
Obman said she has tried to be a positive role model for the younger players. She said she has tried to model herself after former Caledonia High softball player Ashley Langford. Obman said she has seen signs her example is rubbing off. She said she has a habit of picking up the bats for the other team as a sign of good sportsmanship. In a recent junior varsity game, she watched Madison Suggs, the catcher, do the same thing.
Sophomore shortstop Gracie McCleskey said she ripped the rainbow-colored ribbon on her left shoe because it “looks cooler.” She also has a green ribbon with black polka dots on her right shoe. She said the ribbons reflect the bond that has strengthened this year’s team.
“It makes us look more like we’re a team,” McCleskey said. “To everybody else, it looks like we’re doing something different, something someone else hasn’t done.”
McCleskey said the team has benefited from great team chemistry. She said the players talk to each other, laugh with each other, have fun with each other, but they know when it is time to be serious. As if on cue, the Lady Confederates, who were warming up down the left-field line, laughed in unison. Like Kifer, McCleskey said she sensed that trust and togetherness was there at the beginning of the season. Despite a rain-soaked campaign that has wreaked havoc with the schedule, the bonds have grown stronger with each step.
“Just knowing somebody has your back is great,” McCleskey said. “Just showing them we have each other’s back by picking them up or being positive, when the young girls see that they know they will want to be like us.
“I hope we will be able to bring the togetherness and all the positiveness (to future teams). That is something we have been struggling with in past years, just being positive when we get down. … It will be challenging because it is hard to be positive when things aren’t the way you want them to go, but it is not going to get better if you don’t try to make it better. It is not going to help if someone is doing something bad (and you don’t help them). They’re not going to get up unless you help them.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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