A year after winning the third state title in program history, Grove softball will have a very different look in 2013.
Gone are six starters from last year’s squad, including three All-State selections, leaving Emilee Iverson, Libby Morris and Kaitlynn Smith as the only holdovers.Of those three, only Morris is in the same position she played on the varsity squad in 2012, and at the moment that, along with seemingly everything else, is subject to change.
Iverson will take over as the starting pitcher for the Lady Red after starting the last two seasons in centerfield, while Smith will move from right field to shortstop.
“Libby’s the only one not playing a new position,” Collins said. “It’s an evaluation period. These girls are learning to play together and they’re finding their ways into new positions. We just have to get on the same page before we can pinpoint what we can do.”
Iverson has pitched sparingly over the past two seasons as a backup to Jessica Walker, who is now at the University of Jacksonville. The daughter of NEO head softball coach Eric Iverson, the senior won three of her five starts in 2012, striking out 15 batters in 23.1 innings of work.
“She pitched really well this summer,” Collins said. “She’s been working with her dad. She was sick and was out for about a week and a half, so she’s just trying to get back in the groove right now.”
Morris had 19 RBIs in 28 regular season games last year after coming back from a knee injury suffered during her freshman year. Now a junior, Morris is now fully recovered and could possibly be moving across the infield to third base.
“First and third are very similar,” Collins said. “She has a great arm, she fields stuff cleanly. Obviously she’s one of our best athletes, but we’d like to have one person in a familiar situation. She played basketball and softball all summer without her knee brace. She seems to be moving a lot better and is a lot more confident with it.”
Amid all of the shuffling of positions, the Lady Red have also been dealing with the weather. Unseasonably rainy conditions have often kept the squad indoors during the preseason.
“[Tuesday] was only our third day to be outside in eight days,” Collins said. “The [lack of] heat has been good and the rain has been good, it’s just not good for softball. You can only do so much inside.”
Regardless of where they end up on the field, Collins is counting on the success experienced over the past three seasons to guide his team through a rebuilding year.
“We’ve got some good kids that have been part of some really good teams. This is a group that – not all of them have been playing – but they’ve been practicing on teams that have been really, really good and they’ve had to raise their level of play during practice. I think that prepares you. They know what it takes mentally to get to that next step and deal with that pressure. We should have an advantage there.”
The Lady Red will open the season at home on Tuesday against Jay. The junior high contest will start things off at 4:30, with the varsity contest following at approximately 5:30. Grove will open district play at Tahlequah on Thursday before returning home to face Collinsville on Friday
