First-year Tiger softball coach Paul Harrington couldn't be happier with the uncharacteristically early arrival of spring weather.
"Normally, we don't get to see kids catch fly balls until early April," The former Tiger three-sport athlete said. "We have also been running the bases on the field, something that is not easily duplicated in the gym.
"For a new coaching staff this has been ideal in helping us work with the girls and getting them ready for the upcoming season."
Harrington brings an impressive set of coaching credentials to his alma mater, having guided Totino Grace to five Northwest Suburban Conference titles and a like number of state tournament appearances during his 10-year tenure.
"We have a pitcher with three years of varsity experience and many players who have played at the varsity level the past couple of years," he said. "We have been working very hard on defense and that's some place where we really need to improve. We had too many errors there last year.
"It appears that we have a decent mixture of speed and hitting, so we're hoping to generate more runs, too. We have to work on cutting down our strikeouts."
Ashley Betzold
11 wins and .379 batting average in 2011
(photo by Jim Lindquist)
All-Missota Conference pitcher Ashley Betzold who won 11 games and posted a 2.99 earned-run average last year as a sophomore, heads the list of returnees from last year's team that finished 7-7 in the conference. Betzold also led the team in hitting in 2011 with a .379 average.
Other returning monogram winners include senior captain Allie Rice (infield); seniors Taylor Haakana (outfield) and Erin Wurst (infield/outfield); juniors Toni Hunsinger (infield) and Aleah Williamson (outfield) and freshman Taylor Yousse (infield/outfield).
Hunsinger hit .340 last spring after a late move up to the varsity team and Yousse (.283) and Williamson (.272) each received all-conference honorable mention.
Senior Brooke Searles (outfield) and junior Rachel Brietich (outfield) head the list of newcomers expected to battle for varsity playing time.
One area of concern revolves around the catcher position where all-conference performer Dani Muelken graduated last spring.
"We have kids that can catch and play other positions," Harrington said. "We will need someone to step up and fill that role for our team. Hopefully being the battery mate of one of the top pitchers in our conference will be incentive enough for someone to jump in there."
Harrington said that his goals for Farmington will be the same as they were for his teams at Totino Grace.
"We want to be near the top of our conference and section," he said. "Our No. 1 goal was always to be playing our best at playoff time and to make it to the state tournament. That goal never changes."
Harrington said Chaska and Chanhassen along with defending champion Shakopee should be the teams to beat in the Missota with defending state champion Hastings the early pick for Section 1AAA honors.
Former Tiger and St. Mary's University standout Mallory Betzold joins the program as a varsity assistant coach with veteran Loren Cartwright set to handle the B-squad coaching chores. Former Rosemount baseball coach Trevor Monroe will serve as a volunteer assistant and Jim Swedin will coach the ninth grade team.
Paul Ahrenholz and Jen Marshall team up to coach the eighth-graders while Lorraine Kennedy and Teresa Oyen share the seventh-grade coaching duties.
The Tigers kick off their 2012 season Thursday, Apr. 5, with a conference home game with defending champion Shakopee.
