The DCHS Tigerettes regular season began Monday night when they traveled to Jackson County for their season opener. The Review sat down with Coach Danny Bond last week to discuss the upcoming season.
Bond said the schedule has not changed much since last year, with the Tigerettes facing district foes, as well as AAA teams that should keep them on their toes.
"The schedule is similar to what we’ve had in the past," Bond said. "We try to play some local AAA teams, and some local A, and of course our AA regular season district games. We play all our district rivals twice, home and away. We’re playing in two invitational tournaments this year, the Gordonsville Tournament, which is held in Cookeville, and the Plateau Invitational, which is played in Crossville," he shared.
He said the Gordonsville Tournament should give the local team a good workout.
"We’ve been participating in those two tournaments for a while. They’ve been pretty kind to us, and we’ve been very competitive in both. There are some very tough teams. We are playing a team from Altamont. Illinois in the Gordonsville tournament, and I don’t think they would take the long ride down if they don’t think they could win. We will also play Marion County and East Hamilton. They always have a good athletic program down there, and always have a good softball team. Marion County is always knocking on the door at the state tournament, and they always have a good ball club, so there should be some good competition."
On the Tigerettes’ chances this year, Bond said that while we have a tough district schedule as always, he feels his team has what it takes to go all the way.
"I’d like to think that we’re in the running for first place every year, and that’s what we play for," he said. "Macon County came in second last year. They’ve lost one of their best players to an injury during basketball season, but they will still be tough. Macon County and Upperman are always good, solid teams. We’ve got Central Magnet, we play them early on, and we play York early in the season. There are some good teams in the district as usual, but I’d like to think we have a shot at first place if we play hard. Our goal is to win the regular season race, then the district tournament. Then we set our sights on the region finals. If you win that first game in the region finals you get to host a sub-state game. That was a big plus for us last year. This year were looking to not only go to the state tournament, but win that dadgum thing."
Bond said the team has a wealth of talent with many upperclassmen returning, the younger players have the potential to come on strong this season as well.
"We’ve got a lot of good players, and we think they all have the potential to be standouts," said the coach. "We kept 18 players this year, and that’s the most that we’ve kept in some time. I think it’s only the second time that we’ve kept that many in 31 years. We’ve got four seniors, Tyra Graham, Katie Hall, Dani Meadows and Hannah Walker returning this year. We have five juniors, Myranda Bailiff, Lexi Bates, Kayley Caplinger, Maddie Dickens and Hanah Panter. We have four sophomores, Kristina Bain, Allison Maynard, Kelly Roberts and Kendall Taylor, and there are five freshmen, Leslie Hembry, Madison Parsley, Joni Robinson Abbey Taylor and Maddison Whitehead, so the team is pretty well rounded out. We also have a student manager this year, Brooklynn Wilson. This is the first time we’ve had a student manager on the team in a long time. She tried out and didn’t make the team, but I liked her work ethic and she’s a really good kid, and that’s the kind of people we want around our program. We’ve got a good nucleus back with our seniors and juniors, but were going to have some freshmen and sophomores who may be pushing some of those for some playing time," the coach concluded.
Bond has been the Tigerette softball program’s coach since its inception in 1986, and has won more than 600 games as DCHS softball coach.
The program has won 15 regular season district titles, 13 district tournament titles, made 22 region tournament appearances, has won four region tournament titles, made 10 sub-state appearances, won five sub-state titles, and made six state tournament appearances. Bond has been named District Coach of the Year 11 times, and he has been awarded Mid-State Coach of the Year and T.A.C.A. Coach of the Year honors.
