By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
Despite an unexpected coaching change and having two inexperienced pitchers, the Conner fast-pitch softball team is off to a 6-0 start this spring and ranked among the top 10 in the Northern Kentucky coaches poll.
The Cougars defeated Williamstown, 11-1, on Monday to remain unbeaten and have an important 33rd District seeding game at Boone County scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday. If they win that game, they’ll be 3-0 in the district standings that will determine seeds for the post-season playoffs.
The Conner team has achieved all that even though long-time head coach Kristin Koors resigned in late March after a player accused her of directing a softball from a pitching machine at her during practice.
Jim Hicks, a teacher who has served as the softball team’s scorekeeper for three seasons, stepped in as head coach after that incident. The Cougars have won their last four games with Hicks in charge and are ranked No. 8 in the local coaches poll taken last week.
The new coach remembers the meeting he had with the Conner players when they got back together for practice after everything that took place.
“I pretty much told them this could still be the season we thought it could be,” Hicks said. “We just needed to be committed to the future and committed to winning. We needed to get back on the field and put the past behind us.”
Hicks has been the boys’ head basketball coach at Conner for several years, but he has never coached softball on the high school level before. He agreed to take charge of the team, which includes his daughter, Jenna, just so the girls could continue playing.
Jenna, a senior second baseman, is one of eight returning starters in the Conner lineup. She knew the team had the potential to be successful once everything got back on track after the coaching change.
“Honestly, I’m not surprised at all that we are continuing to win,” Jenna said. “As a team, you just want to keep moving forward through things like that. We’re a good team. We have some good players and we’re committed to winning. That’s what we’re here to do and whoever our coach is we’re going to work hard no matter what.”
Due to his lack of softball coaching experience, Hicks enlisted the help of another parent, Chris Crawford, who coaches fast-pitch select teams during the summer. When the Cougars are in the field, Crawford often sends signals to the team’s two freshman pitchers, Ashlee Jones and Olivia Henry, about what they need to throw.
Neither of the rookie pitchers has lost a game yet, but they were involved in a couple of nail-biters last week. Conner edged Ryle, 3-2, on Wednesday and then slipped past Newport Central Catholic, 9-8, in extra innings on Thursday.
In the Ryle game, the Cougars scored all of their runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 3-1 lead and held on in the top in the seventh to upset their district rival. Ryle is ranked No. 2 in the local coaches poll.
“It was funny, in our speech (after the game) I told them how excited I was for them that I actually got goose bumps and I showed them my arm,” coach Hicks said. “It was a really exciting win for them.”
Henry was the winning pitcher in Conner’s five-inning victory over Williamstown on Monday. Senior outfielder Bethany Maines hit a three-run homer in the first inning that put the Cougars ahead. She blasted another homer in the fifth inning to give her team a 10-run lead that ended the game early.
The Cougars will get their first taste of tournament competition this season when they play in the Beasts of the East at Woodford County High School on Saturday. They also have 12 games scheduled in May before the playoffs begin.
Conner has qualified for the 9th Region tournament every year since 2008 when it switched to an eight-team bracket. The Cougars were regional runner-up six times and made it to the semifinals twice in the past eight years. Hicks expects this year’s team to be in the hunt for the regional title once again, and he’s glad to be a part of it.
“For me to inherit a team that’s one of the best in the region, that’s pretty nice,” he said. “There’s a lot of skilled players on this team. It was just about getting them back to being committed to what they want to do.”