Ten months is an eternity in athletics.
Repetitions in practice and execution in games can help even the youngest player lose the butterflies and learn things she never imagined.
It has been 10 months since Central Academy softball coach Sammy Lindsey took the field with a fast-pitch team that featured 11 underclassmen.
The Lady Vikings’ slow-pitch team has 13 underclassmen, but that hasn’t stopped it from moving into contention for a state title. Second-seeded Central Academy will try to take that next step at 9 a.m. Saturday when it takes on third-seeded Winona Christian in the opening game of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools state tournament. Action will take place at the softball field at the school. Top-seeded Kemper Academy will take on fourth-seeded North Sunflower Academy at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the second game of the double-elimination event. The championship game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Saturday. An if-needed game would follow at 6 p.m.
Lindsey’s team, which is 9-3, has lost twice to Kemper Academy, but he feels good about his team’s chances. With only one senior — Logan Waggoner — Lindsey has seen plenty of growth in his players and knows the program has a bright future.
“We felt we would have a shot at this,” Lindsey said. “The team is so young and you never know how youth will respond. Our goal was to get here and try to get it done. That is what we’re shooting for Saturday.”
Junior Jakyla Smith is the only junior on the team. Smith transferred to Central Academy and is in her first season playing the sport. Sophomores Blake Rigdon, Cassie Campbell, Neely Abrams, and Sarah Norris are part of a group of young starters that helped the team close the regular season with victories against CCA, Lamar, and Amite. Jamai Smith is a sophomore who sees playing time off the bench.
Freshmen Kayla Brown and Paige Buchanan, eighth-graders Courtney Gaylord and Sarah Holley, and seventh-graders Savanah Stapleton, Kelsey Robbins, Anna Beth Rigdon, and Sadie Lindsey make up the rest of the squad. Many of the younger players saw significant on-field training in the fall, when Central Academy played its fast-pitch season. The program has had success the past few years and has produced several quality players, including pitcher Lillian Lindsey, who went to East Mississippi Community College, and Alex and Corey Dawkins and Marion Colvin. Alex Dawkins also went to EMCC, while Corey Dawkins and Marion Colvin played part of their prep careers at Central Academy before transferring to Pickens Academy in Carrollton, Ala.
Central Academy last won a slow-pitch title in 2009-10. Kendall Taylor and Megan Banks played key roles in that championship, which was the school’s seventh. Waggoner is the only player on this year’s team who has anywhere near that level of experience, but coach Lindsey knows that won’t stop his latest group from competing this weekend.
“As young as they are, pretty much everybody has gotten a little better as the season has gone on,” Lindsey said. “I guess when you’re as young as we are there is room for everybody to improve.
“I know we’re capable of winning a title and that it is there for us. We just have to go earn it. Hopefully we will on our game Saturday and maybe we can pull this thing out.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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