The softball season at HHS has come to an end. The Tigers ended with a record of 1-12.

“Softball is a sport that is built off failure,” Head coach Kalik May said. “So the fact that, when we failed a lot this year, we continued to progress and continued to know our goals and know what we wanted to do, was very important.”

May is a science teacher, and has been coaching the HHS softball team for three years now. The team had no seniors this season, consisting mainly of sophomores and juniors, as well as a few freshmen.

“We don’t have a lot of experience,” May said. “Sometimes we would make the right play, but then we’d do a semi-freak out, and make the wrong play. I think that was just a result of us being a young team.”

Last year’s starting pitcher, Hailey McKay, graduated at the end of the 2024 school year. This left the players with the fear of wondering who would step up and become their next pitcher.

“Everybody was so nervous about it, and I knew we had some girls that definitely could come through and do it, it was just a matter of their work ethic,” May said. “Some of them really took into it, and focused and worked hard on it, and by the end of the season they got much better.”

In the end, more than one girl stepped into the role. In fact, many different players attended pitching practices during their off-season in an attempt to get better.

“I’d say it’s a difficult thing to learn, but at the same time, I really do like being on the mound,” MacKenzie Lattray (11) said.

Lattray is one of the players that not only attended the pitching practices, but stuck with it once the season began.

“In the beginning, I felt nervous to start because it’s a skill that takes a while to actually get good at and I knew it would take commitment, so I was a little scared,” Lattray said. “Now, I’m much more used to it than I was, and I honestly enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would.”

Another player who attended the practices, Precious Silver (10), expressed that she didn’t originally want to be a pitcher.

“Last year I didn’t pitch, I was out in the outfield, and I feel like I was pretty good at it,” Silver said.

Softball is not only physically challenging, but it can also be mentally challenging. As a first-year pitcher, Lattray experienced a lot of hardships, but her positive mindset helped her through.

”It’s taught me to persevere no matter how many wins or losses, because improvement and good sportsmanship is what really matters,” Lattray said.

Pitching is a difficult thing to learn, it takes athleticism that doesn’t usually come naturally.

“We have all new pitchers this year, and I feel like people don’t realize that,” Silver said. “When pitchers aren’t experienced enough to throw a strike every single time, the infield and outfield don’t really have a chance to make plays.”

Celeste Santonge (10) was able to single handedly watch the pitchers improve from beginning to end.

“As a catcher it’s just so fun and exciting seeing them grow throughout the season and get so much better,” Santonge said.

Every practice the pitchers attended during the season, Santonge did as well. She was a catcher for a part of every single game, many of them for the entirety. Santonge was injured in a few different games, but persevered despite the pain.

“I hurt my knee in the last game, it bent backwards and it really hurt, but I played it through anyways.”

Constantly being in the catcher’s position, diving for balls, and popping up to throw a player out really took a toll on Santonge’s body.

“Physically, it’s hard,” Santonge said. “My body, specifically my knees, are super sore after almost every practice and game. It’s really easy to pull something or hurt something just from playing.”

However, this didn’t stop her, and she’ll be returning as catcher her junior year. Santonge and Silver were appointed team captains by their fellow teammates and coaches due to their leadership skills during games and practices.

“We were willing to keep coming back to practice, even with loss after loss,” Santonge said. “We weren’t just giving up, we were coming back and still practicing and showing up to each game like it was our first. It was a brand new day, mental state, everything.”

Though they were a younger team this year, they won’t be young forever. Next season will give the players another chance to prove themselves and improve their abilities.

“What I’m looking forward to next season is us not being so young,” May said. “We’ll have three seniors, we’ll have individuals who have multiple years of playing varsity softball, and we’ll have some pitchers that have experience and have really taken a step forward from this season.”

Ending the season 1-12 can be hard, especially for the players who give it their all and still get a bad result. However, almost all of the girls will be coming back next season, ready to learn and progress even more.

“It’s a great lesson in life that, even though you might fail at something, keep pushing forward and progressing towards your goal,” May said.