|
|
Jerrod
Newland addresses the crowd as Lady Wave seniors and the rest of
the 2012 softball team
were recognized at the Greenville Elks Wednesday
night. Seniors pictured left to right are Kayla Harshbarger,
Kate
McDermitt, Kelly Martin, Paige Wolter, Taylin French and Ashley Hanes.
CNO Photos by David Woods
|
|
2012 Lady Wave
State Runner-ups recognized
Newland says team is special...
GWOC: Newland Coach of the Year; Martin Player of the Year
By George Starks
GREENVILLE- When the rest of the Greenville spring sports teams
received their awards, the Lady Wave softball team had unfinished
business to attend to.
The very next day, the team was scheduled to leave for Akron to play
for a state title.
“We really didn’t want to take away from the business at hand,” said
Wave Coach Jerrod Newland. “When you receive your awards, it’s about
the individual and we had a team function that had to be taken care of.
No one wanted to take away from that state title run. No one!”
The next morning the team left on its trip and would eventually bring
back silver, losing to LaGrange Keystone, 7-2.
“I’m at ease with what happened,” Newland stated. “In the final polls,
Keystone was ranked first in the nation by ESPN and third in the nation
by USA Today. If we play them 10 times, we might beat them once. I
would not change a thing about that title game. I would play it the
same way 100 out of 100 times. I told the kids before the game if we
played Keystone three times, we might beat them once.”
Now that the 2012 season is in the books, Newland has to look ahead to
2013 and that version of Lady Wave softball.
“We’ve got talent coming back,” said Newland. “Our juniors, led by Erin
Albright and Rachael Class will be seniors; our sophomores will be
juniors and so on. We have a very talented eighth grade class coming.
New faces, new places. I’m losing six quality seniors but I promise I
will put a quality team on the field.”
In a pre-season interview, Newland guaranteed a team that would go to
the final four. After 11 games, the Wave was sporting a record of 7-4.
Not a state quality record. So when did Newland see the light at the
end of the tunnel?
“Probably at the end of the GWOC and that was about the 20th game of
the season,” Newland pointed out. “When the 15th game was in the books,
I thought we were starting to turn the corner. No one believed me that
we were going, not even you. After the 30th game, you had to believe
because we were going. We had one of the best teams in the nation on
the ropes with five outs to go in the game. For us to beat them would
have been great. It was like Rocky beating the Russian.”
With the Wave being given individual honors, Newland was selected as
the Coach of the Year in the GWOC while Kelly Martin was Player of the
Year.
“The celebration was awesome tonight and this was the icing on the
cake,” Newland said. “We had the Player of the Year in the conference
and five of our kids were first team all-conference. We won the
conference, the sectional, district, regional and came within five outs
of winning the state. What more can I ask. This is an exceptional bunch
of kids and a great group of seniors. We had one honorable mention and
one second team all-conference. That says a lot for this team as a
whole. The drive and commitment was there and it showed. I’m proud of
my kids and I’m at a loss for words. I’m happy with the season and
content with the run. It took me a couple of days but I finally
realized that we had a team that won 22 games in a row, a group of
seniors that won 112 games as a group in four years and we put
Greenville back on the map in softball.”
More changes are coming to Wave softball and Stebbins Field. That will
be revealed on CNO in the upcoming days.
|
|
With
the public being invited Wednesday for the Greenville Lady Wave
spring awards,
many turned out for the celebration in honor of the
state runner-up team.
|
|
Wave
seniors Kayla Harshbarger and Kelly Martin are presented awards by
Coach Newland. The Lady
Wave finished the 2012 season with a 29-5
record and the state runner-up trophy.
|
|
|
|
