As the DeKalb County Tigerettes softball team gears up for the 2013 season the Smithville Review caught up with Head Coach Danny Bond to talk about this year’s team.
 Smithville Review: What are your expectations for your team this season?
Coach Bond: Every year we expect to have a winning season. We expect to finish the regular season in our district race either first or second, preferably first, but we do try to get the best seed that we can for the season-ending district tournament. In turn, we want to try to win the district tournament. If we win the tournaments, we can host a first-round regional game, where as, if we come in second, we will have to travel during the region.
We have gone on to the regional tournament 11 of the last 12 seasons, so some of our primary goals that we set are to win the regional tournament, win the sub-state game, so we can play in and possibly win the state tournament. We have flirted with that for many years. We have gone to the state tournament five times but never won it. There is always a chance that we can. We do have high expectations every year, and this year is no exception.
SR: Who will be pitching this season?
Bond: We have three pitchers. They are the same pitchers we had last season. They were sophomores last year, and we told them that we were throwing them to the wolves, which we kind of did, but I thought they did a pretty good job overall.
They have worked really hard this off-season. The three returning are, in no certain order, Shauna Taylor, Lauren Colwell and Danielle Tyson.
We try to build a good pitching staff and not just rely on one, because at any time, that one could be hurt. This particular staff consists of girls that are all in the same grade, and we look for them to have a very big season.
SR: What team do you feel like your team will need to beat to win the district?
Bond: I would have to put Upperman High School at the top. They ended up winning the district last season, advancing all the way to finish third in the state. They have a lot of their players back. They are a very good ball club.
I think Smith County will be good. They have their number-one pitcher returning. I expect them to have a solid team.
Cannon County will have a solid team with very good players. It looks like Cannon is going to some tournaments that they should be going to so they can improve their skills and better themselves.
Of course, you can never count out Livingston Academy. I think they will be younger this year. They had several seniors last season that ended up probably causing more problems. They did not gel as a team. So, this season they are younger and have a lot of new faces.
Central Magnet will be better this year.
York has a new coach this season. They were the last-place team a year ago, but with the new coach maybe they will have some higher expectations to do what they need to do to be a force in the district.
SR: Who are some of the players you will lean on to help be leaders on this year's squad?
Bond: As far as leaders, of course, we always lean on our seniors. This year we have four seniors, Abbey Caldwell, Taylor Monette, Annieka Norton and Lindsey Taylor. We look to the seniors every year because they have been around the program for three years. They know how we do things and what is expected. We rely heavily on them, but you can be a leader as a freshman, sophomore or junior too. We like to knight them all to be leaders, but we depend a little more on the seniors.
SR: How about your offense? Who are going to be your big hitters this season?
Bond: I'm looking for good things out of Abbey Caldwell and Taylor Monette. Annieka Norton is hitting the ball pretty good right now. Lindsey Taylor is a good contact hitter. Chelsey Brannon is showing signs of being able to hit the ball hard and deep. Lauren Colwell has been hitting good.
Shauna Taylor has been working on her hitting. Instead of pulling a lot, she is now being more patient at the plate and starting to spray the ball around a little bit. Danielle Tyson is working both sides of the field, hitting it to left and right field a lot. She has a good stick. Loren Cripps batted .511 last year, and we are looking for big things out of her.
We have some freshman that are coming in. Katie Hall, Dani Meadows and Tyra Graham have good sticks. We are working with Emily Robinson, who is a sophomore who hits the ball pretty well. This is her first year with the team. And then Hannah Walker, who I think has good pop on the ball, but her batting technique is a little less skilled than some of the others, so we are working with her.
It's just different when you are working in the batting cage versus seeing good line pitching.
SR: Defensively, are there holes that are going to need to be filled?
Bond: Yes. We lost from last season, Tiffany Hendrixson, our catcher, who hit .451. Alex Meadows has started since her freshman season. We lost our shortstop Brooke Hutchings, who batted .312, and Hannah Green who played first base. So we need to replace our catcher, center fielder, shortstop and first base. Anyone can tell you the backbone of your team is up the middle. There are some key spots that we are really working hard to try and fill.
SR: Coach Lynus Martin is no longer board. Can you talk some about that and your new assistant?
Bond: First, I would like to say something about Coach Martin, who was an assistant for us, but with the circumstances of young children at home and being the head basketball coach, which is a full time job, he just did not have enough hours in the day to devote to another sport, and he will be greatly missed. He did a tremendous amount for the program. We have now brought Danny Fish on board with us. If you would have asked me back when Coach Martin announced that he was leaving, it would have been really hard to fill his shoes, but I think we have done a pretty good job with Coach Fish. Of course, Danny comes from here. He played baseball and basketball and went on to play college baseball and then ended up coaching basketball and softball in college as head coach at Maryville College and at Union College in Kentucky. He just happened to fall into place for us. Fish has been a great addition for us, because he knows the game so well and gets along with the girls. It's just been a blessing that we had things fall into place for us.
I want to mention Amy Tobitt, who was a volunteer assistant for the last five or six years. She did a heck of a job too, keeping records, stats and mentoring the girls. She will be greatly missed. We have added Melissa Ruch who is a teacher here, and she has done a great job thus far.
So we are losing two outstanding coaches, but we added two that will help this program move forward.
SR: With the tremendous success that you have had, what keeps you motivated at this point in your career?
Bond: I still enjoy being around the students with teaching, as well as the coaching. I still feel good health-wise. I still wake up and look forward to coming to work. There are trying times, just like with any other job, but I still enjoy it.
I am motivated to put a good product on the field for the program and the people of DeKalb County. I like to say we do things right and the best that we can, as far as the discipline side, instructional part and organizational part of our program. We just want to present a good picture of DeKalb County to everyone in the state.