by Ben Murphy
Sports Writer
The Farwell softball team had much success under longtime head coach Steve Klinge. Al Esterline, an assistant on last year’s team that went 23-15 believes that the program’s success should continue under his leadership as well.
“The girls have been working extremely hard so that they can compete at a high level,” Esterline said. “Our conference will be very difficult so we need to be ready to play both mentally and physically. Our team has been focusing on having a positive attitude all the time. This will help us be successful.”
Back from last year’s team will be seniors Madison Travis (shortstop, pitcher, JPC honorable mention), Emma Swarthout (shortstop, pitcher, JPC honorable mention), Olivia Brown (outfield), Hannah Bass (center field), Alana Gaskill (outfield), Abigail Self (outfield), Melanie Hall (outfield) and junior Remi Sponseller (catcher).
New to the team will be juniors Raini Sponseller (infield), Hannah Norbury (infield, outfield), Rachel Odykirk (infield, outfield) and freshman Lindsay Esterline (pitcher, first base).
“I am looking at our seniors Madison Travis and Emma Swarthout to lead our team in the right direction,” Esterline said. “We are going to need some of our newcomers to step up to help us out. Our goal this season is to get better each and every day, and if we do that I feel we will like the end results.”
Farwell is scheduled to play at Merrill on Wednesday.
“I have a lot of girls who have put in a lot of time in the offseason on their own, after the first few games I hope we can see how the pieces fit all together as a team,” Esterline said. “I feel fortunate to have a great group of young ladies to work with and we cannot wait for the season to get started.”
