This year’s 2025 Groves Girls Softball Team has a revamped coaching staff, with the previous assistant coach, Josh Randolph, taking over the role of head coach for the varsity team. This change to the coaching staff came suddenly to the players after their 2024 season, but they were able to adapt quickly and begin working together. As a new coach brings about new changes, Jacey Roy, a captain on the varsity softball team, believes that these changes have actually been for the better.
“I think it’s definitely made us stronger because we had to adjust to some new things, but it made us a better team and brought us together more,” Roy said.
Their record already proves that this new head coach has made them stronger. As of Tuesday, April 29, 2025, they have already beaten their record from the 2024 season of 12-18, as their current record is 13-1. Another varsity team captain, Katie Murawski, believes that the new coaches have a big impact on the team.
“I think it’s gotten a lot more positive because we’re cheering a lot more, it’s a lot more upbeat,” Murawski said. “ It just feels more freeing. Not that there’s less pressure, but with a new coach it feels like we are all more comfortable and have more room to grow.” Murawski said.
In sports, it’s essential to have energy and to have a positive environment because within that environment, more learning is able to happen and the fear of messing up decreases. Roy also believes that the atmosphere of practice changed with the new coach.
“It’s been pretty good. I feel like we have really good communication and all the girls are super nice. No one is really gonna get down on you if you make a mistake, they will lift you up,” Roy said.
These changes of energy and positivity don’t just come about on their own, it’s a whole team effort to make a more uplifting environment. Some of the changes that were made included the pre-game warm-up and smaller things like how each player approaches their at-bats. Warming up pre-game is crucial,as it sets the tone for the game and gets the players ready to play. If the warm-up is not effective, it can cause the players not to play to their full potential. Even causing injuries if the players are not warming up the right parts of their bodies.
Even though in previous years the softball team was successful, winning 12 games last year, and 13 the year before that, some of the team had troubles with the coaching staff.
“I feel like it’s been much more structured and a lot less frustrating, because last year, we didn’t really know what we were doing wrong,” Murawski said.
Overall, it seems that the replacement of the head coach had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the team. From having a more productive practice environment or spreading more positivity and energy during games, the Groves girls varsity softball team is achieving great things so far in their 2025 season with their new head coach, and they still have a lot more time left in the season!
