Editor’s note: Joanna Lane and the Jackrabbit softball team recently kicked off their season. We caught up with her to find out about their trip to Florida and the team’s prospects for the 2011 season.
Q. Your team has had a tough start to the season and is currently 0-9, talk about the start of the 2011 season.
A. It was a definite different feeling than being outside. It’s probably not a tournament that we would go back to. It’s great for fiscal responsibility and being able to stay close to home and get some games in, but the ceiling came into play several times and really prohibited our team from getting a complete game. We put some good games together down in Florida and we’ll look to build on that.
Q. What areas do you see that need the most improvement?
A. Overall, when you look at the season statistics, the area that we have the most work to do is definitely in the circle. Our last day of fall practice, Kori Seidlitz, one of our returning pitchers, was hit in the face by a batted ball and has had a really hard time coming back from that.
Q. Which parts of your team’s play have shown the most promise?
A. We have six kids hitting over .300, three kids at .315 or better, so offensively we’re doing some good things. We’ve limited a lot of strikeouts, so we’re continuing to grow and continuing progress but we definitely have some work to do. Devon Reick is hitting .540 right now, which is ridiculous. Our biggest surprise on the offensive side has probably been Pam Nicholson, who has all of our stolen bases right now and is really using her speed right now. Those two have been big for us. They’re getting on base, we just need to be able to get them in.
Q. What kind of difficulties come with practicing indoors for the opening months of the season in South Dakota?
A. I think the hardest part is once you’re outside and you have to come back in. The kids have been outside and they have been in Florida and then they have to come back and practice on a basketball court in the Barn and the ground balls aren’t the same and pitchers aren’t getting the same break on their pitches as they would outside. We don’t use it as an excuse and we don’t focus on it but it is something that we have to learn to work with. It gives us a chance to work on hitting in the cage and work on little things until we can get outside and work on big things.
Q. You went down to Florida and spent some time in the sun. What kind of things did the team do down there?
A. It was nice to go down there and we played a lot but did some things as a team during the off days. We were able to go to the Kennedy Space Center and we had a great time, we saw Discovery before it launched and we were able to learn about what really goes into that space program. I think that it was great for our student-athletes to experience that.
Q. You’re going from one warm place to another, as you head to Hawaii for nine days. What are you looking for from that trip?
A. The Hawaii trip is huge for us. We got the idea from the men’s and women’s basketball teams who have made trips to the Bahamas and Virgin Islands and it really helped them. We will play some great competition. We’re looking for complete games. Our kids know that we didn’t play very well when we were in Florida and they are in still good place and they’re just ready to play again. This is pretty much our last trip before we start conference play so we’re not really looking for end results. We’re looking to bring some things together and play with some consistency. If we can do that over the stretch of the next 12 games, I think we’ll be ready for conference play.
#1.2045943:914075629.jpg:Joanna Lane, Jackrabbit softball coach:Joanna Lane, Jackrabbit softball coach:Submitted Photo
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