MORGANTOWN – The 2021-2022 season was the first-ever for the Trinity softball team and coach Colony Hopkins.
With a young roster of freshmen, sophomores and a lone senior, the Warriors are aiming to work hard towards progression on the field, improving individually and as a team, while supporting each other along the way.
“The biggest strength of this team is that these young ladies work so hard and give 100% all of the time. They want to improve individually and as a team; they are incredibly supportive of each other,” Hopkins said.
Coach Hopkins first developed softball at the middle school level at TCS three years ago before fielding a team for high school competition last year.
“We are a very young and new team. This is only our second season having a high school softball team and third season for a middle school team,” Hopkins aid. “I began this program three years ago with a middle school team; I had approximately 13 girls, eight of which had never played softball in their lives. My current sophomore class was in 8th grade that year. We had a lot of growing pains but they were eager to learn and improved significantly that year.”
In fact, Hopkins says she and her daughter (a current 8th grader at TCS) had to teach players how to pitch in a short time to be ready for the season.
“After that season I decided it was imperative to start a high school program as well and we did just that. Last year we didn’t have anyone that knew how to pitch, so between myself and my daughter, we taught two girls how to pitch three weeks prior to our first game,” Hopkins said. “As you can imagine this was a struggle but we made it through. This year we have a freshman who has been taking pitching lessons for about one year, so we are still relatively new to pitching but in a better position than we were last year. Most of my high school players only have 1-2 years experience playing softball but their effort, heart, and desire make up for the lack of experience.”
Going into the year, she says keeping the goals simple is what her squad will do while working as hard as possible to reach them.
“To be totally honest – I’d love for our girls to get their first win. Last year we didn’t win a game but they all had fun and enjoyed the experience,” Hopkins said. “I am hoping to take that love and build. My biggest goals for these young ladies are to have fun, gain confidence, and continue to build.”
