The bar has been raised at Hebron Christian.
On Saturday, the Lady Eagles will try to make their first state tournament appearance even more memorable when they take on Heidelberg Academy at 10:45 a.m. in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class A fast-pitch softball event at Freedom Ridge Park in Ridgeland.
Starkville Academy (Class AAA) and Oak Hill Academy (Class AA) also will represent the area Saturday in the two-day tournament. The teams that win Saturday will return Monday to Ridgeland to determine the state champions.
Hebron Christian (24-11) lost to Bayou Academy 1-0 and 11-0 on Monday after beating the four-time defending state champions last Saturday. Coach Cass Tapley”s team has used solid pitching from Chloe Tapley and Jessica Fleming and timely hitting, led by Magen Tapley and Cathryn Moore, to make history.
Magen Tapley, Fleming, and Moore were three of seven seniors honored Sept. 17 at halftime of the football team”s game against Oak Hill Academy. The public address announcer told the crowd the seniors have helped “raise the bar” for a softball program at a school that has less than 200 kids.
It might seem difficult for a school that size to have a dominant softball program, but the Lady Eagles showed they have the pieces in place to make that happen.
“From where we were four or five years ago, I think it is a legitimate program, so expectations are higher every year,” Tapley said.
Tapley said having committed players is essential to building a “legitimate” program. He said getting the players to participate in travel ball in the summer is crucial because the fast-pitch season is only three months long. He said he also has been fortunate to get all of the school”s athletes to come out and play softball. Now that the team has established itself as a championship caliber squad, he said recruiting players is a little easier.
“You can”t just show up in August and be a competitive program,” Tapley said. “All of the other teams are playing in May, June, and July, and these girls (including several of the seniors) have always done that. Many of them have been on a couple of different teams in the summer.”
Moore said the Lady Eagles really showed people what they could do this season. As much as she wants to go out with a state title this season, she feels Hebron Christian teams in the future will be better prepared and more able to win championships.
“When the younger girls get older they will be able to do bigger things,” Moore said. “A lot of those girls play travel ball, and we have a good group in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. They did really well in the junior varsity games this year, and I think they will be very good in a few years.”
This year, Moore said the team realized it could win a district title, which it did with an 8-0 mark, win the North Half, which it almost did, and get to the state tournament. She said that confidence has helped make the season so enjoyable, and that the Lady Eagles will use it to help them take the final step.
“I am going to always remember this team and the heart we had and that we played as hard as we could all of the time,” Moore said. “We want to do all we can so we don”t have any regrets. I don”t want to say we could have done this or we could have done that.”
Senior second baseman Hillary Arnold feels the team has helped put Hebron Christian on the map. In fact, Arnold said the Lady Eagles received plenty of questions from people who hadn”t heard of Hebron Christian or didn”t know where it was. Thanks to a group of girls that has spent many of its formative years on the ball field, Hebron Christian”s reputation for exceptional softball is spreading.
“It has been awesome. It has definitely been unforgettable and something we will keep with us forever,” Arnold said. “I am really pleased with how we have done this year. We all had our problems and our little fights, but at North State we really realized we had a chance and we really pulled together and realized it was real.”
This season, Tapley said he was able to get five sixth-graders into a program that has been in existence seven or eight years. He hopes he will be able to keep them involved and interested so he can teach them about the game. The more those players learn, he said, the more they will enjoy the game and will be able to recruit more players.
Tapley will need that pipeline to work next season when the team looks to replace the seven seniors. With 22 players in the program, numbers won”t be a pressing concern, but he knows the rebuilding — or reloading in the case of championship programs — is a never-ending cycle.
“We want to keep them competitive (next year) and not think, ”Oh, we”re young and it is OK what happens,” ” said Tapley, who is in his third season as coach. “We expect to be back at North State and at the state tournament. We plan to keep expectations high, but we”ll go about (realizing those goals) in different ways.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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