Lady Colonels looking to begin upward trend this spring

Since their 50^th District championship season in 2019, the Whitley County Lady Colonels softball team has not been able to compete at the level that they would like. This year, they are looking to change that.

“We have been on a downward trend since 2019,” Head Coach Angela Singleton admitted recently. “But I think that the girls have reached a point where their mentality is that they really need to be team first. They want to win ball games, and I think that they will do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

The Lady Colonels are off to a good start, winning their season opener Monday, 12-2, at McCreary Central.

“We’re a little young this year,” Singleton said of her 2024 squad. “With that being said, we still have a good amount of talent and we are trying to put together the strongest lineup that we can. The girls have been working really hard, so we’re hoping to have a strong season. Last year (12-24) wasn’t exactly the best, but I think that we began to hit our stride towards the end. We are ready to pick up now where we left off.”

Singleton said that this year’s team will feature a handful of veteran players supported by a promising underclassmen group that will include three eighth graders. She and her husband, Matt, have put a lot of time and effort into helping develop the middle school program in recent years, and she feels that will begin to pay dividends at the varsity level in the weeks and months ahead.

“Twelve of the twenty players on our roster have been playing travel ball for at least three-or-four season now,” Singleton said. “Some have been doing it for longer than that. They have been getting in extra reps during the summer months, going to camps and spending time in the cages and on the field. All of that should show tremendously.”

Singleton said that her main goals for the team in the first few weeks of the new season is to nail down her starting lineup, which will require a little bit of competition considering the amount of depth currently featured on the roster. “As a staff, we are looking forward to having lots of options in several different positions,” she said.

As far as team strengths go, Singleton said that this year’s Lady Colonels should have more speed on the base paths than in recent years, and she is excited about having some solid options in the pitching circle as well.