New Season New Coach For Lady Eagles Softball

Canton coach Aaron Slider began his first season at the helm of the softball program when practices started on Tuesday, and he was greeted by a more than 30 players.

"We’ve got about 18 freshmen coming out," Slider said before the first practice took place. "That’s the first real positive for us, just having the numbers. It makes for more competition and better practices. We’re obviously a very young program, though."

There will be experience coming back from last year’s squad, but there was a lot of youth there, also.

"We have three seniors," Slider said, "But I think only one has been in the program for four years – Jennifer Hailey. The two other seniors are Samantha Reid and Hillary Sims."

Seven underclassmen return from last year’s squad, including two juniors and five sophomores. The juniors are Cindi Farrell, who is expected to be one of the pitchers attempting to replace Whitney Landwermeyer, and Emily Sterling.

Sophomore Maegan Spears will be another prospect vying for time on the mound. The other returning sophomores are Shelby Largin, Stephanie McLemore, Meagan Hogg and Shelby Thompson.

Coach Slider will be looking for one of the freshmen to fill in the gaps, but he is also determined to have a JV team.

"We didn’t have a JV last year, and some of these girls would have been helped by that," Slider said. "If at all possible, we want to leave the younger girls players together at the JV level. They will better off, and the program will be better off in the long term if they are getting on the field and playing everyday."

While it will be Slider’s first head coaching assignment in softball, he has been a head coach before.

"That was part of the attraction for me," Slider explained of accepting the job. "I’ve been a head coach in the past, and this was a good opportunity to stay in the Canton and be a head coach.

"I have been involved in softball in different ways in the past," continued Slider, who was the Eagle’s assistant baseball coach last season. "Obviuosly there are a lot similarities to baseball, but there are some differences, too. Softball is a much quicker game; a much quicker pace."

One of the things that will be the same from the coach’s point of view is a defense first approach.

"We’re going to focus on defensive fundamentals," Slider said. "Throwing and catching and getting the easy outs."

Throwing and catching begins in earnest next Thursday when the Lady Eagles will travel to Grand Saline for the first scrimmage. Canton will host the Lady Indians for the season opener on Monday, February 11.