Coming off a home opener win, Titan Softball girls helped celebrate Coach Tom Horton’s 200th win in his coaching career. Horton has had much coaching experience around the metro, most recently coaching at Bellevue East and coming to Papio South in 2019. He has implied a good mindset for the girls and has seen how hard they have worked over the summer to get ready for this years ‘24-25 season, including summer conditioning, lifting, training, and skill work.
“We focus on growth, doing things the right way, celebrating the ups, and focusing on getting better. We tell our girls to be better at the end than you were at the beginning, and I think that really helps us stay focused on our goals for the season,” Horton said.
The softball fields were freshly redone for this year’s season, being finished in spring of 2024. This new field is all turf, which will help the girls play games that otherwise could not be played because of field conditions. The girls and coaches heighten the dedication and the level they work at, using the team motto “TBDIR” which stands for “the best do it right.”
“Our goal is just to put a quality team on the field every night while focusing on our team motto TBDIR and just to continue to grow all together as a team, and eventually qualify for the state games, which I believe we have a great shot at,” Horton said.
A part of any team sport is the connection and chemistry between the teammates. Coach Horton explained how important and fun it has been for the whole program to do team bonding. This gives the girls the opportunity to bond and have fun before and throughout the season.
Horton said one of his favorite team traditions was the Saturday Blue-and-White Scrimmage.
“It’s usually the very beginning of the season,” he said. “We all get together to scrimmage, check out our uniforms and then have a team barbecue at my house. I think our girls really enjoy that.”
“Another one that I think everyone really looks forward to,” Horton added, “is volunteering at Saint Vincent De Paul. All the girls really like helping out and look forward to that every year.”
On the note of bonding moments, the game scheduled for Aug. 29 against Omaha Westview was canceled due to thunderstorms. The girls took the opportunity to host a team dinner in place of the game. Unification across the softball program is at a high level for these girls.
