The combination of team bonding and challenging practices have built the solid foundation for the Papillion-LaVista South’s softball team to advance to the championship, and place second overall in their Colorado tournament.
Although winning is rewarding, the girls on the team made it clear that it isn’t their only focus.
“We are all there to play the game and just have fun,” senior third baseman Ysa Rodriguez said.
While in Colorado, the team enjoyed many team-bonding activities to build their relationships.
“We all as a team went out to Fort Collins, and we all walked around, and visited shops for about an hour, and we had a team dinner,” Ysa described.
Building those relationships off of the field is what sophomore Caydence Snyder believes brings them closer while on the field.
“Going out to eat with each other, having those relationships, and then seeing them show on the field… I love my team, I love all of them. It’s so fun to like watch them succeed,” she said.
Papio South’s softball program also puts emphasis on the work they put in. Ysa explained that the word varsity head coach Horton keeps using for it is “grit.” Horton focuses on pushing his team hard, so it’s easier to succeed. Sophomore Maizey Macke explains it as:
“[Horton] pushing us really hard in practices, making us run stars… And then summer workouts, he really like pushed us hard, especially working out at six in the morning. We were ready for all the long days and the games. And I mean being up at six isn’t easy, but pushing through them made the other games easier.”
The team’s summer workouts started at 6:00 a.m., consisting of lifting until 7:30 a.m., and one hour of field work, not ending until 8:30 a.m.. Workouts were four days a week, Monday through Thursday. Now their in-season practices take place six days a week from 3:45 p.m. until 5:30 p.m..
All the hard work the team put in paid off. In their Colorado season opener tournament, the Titans won their first three games, losing their last game in the championship, ending 3-1 for the weekend. The Titans’ one loss was against Harris County, who they were tied with for the first four innings. The final score ended up being 12-2.
When asked about what that competition was like, Ysa responded,
“I mean those girls can bat! We held them for a very long time, we had competitive at-bats, we were doing very well in the field. You know just, it happens, it’s always gonna happen, there’s always gonna be that one game… I think they just read the ball really well that game.”
The loss, however, was still positively impactful.
“It just taught us we are gonna compete and we are gonna have bad games, we just gotta be able to bounce back, because you know we have a game the next week. Like we can’t bring that over to next week, because we have so much to compete for. We play over thirty games during high school season so just we have to be ready to bounce back quick,” Ysa said.
Competition in Colorado was significantly different than that in Nebraska. Teams drove in from many states, along with a Georgia team that flew in. The ride to Colorado was about 8 hours for the Titans. Elevation and environment played a big factor in gameplay, but the softball team showed they can thrive in any conditions. With injuries and illness popping up around the team, they still came out as a highly competitive group of girls, ready to play.
Overall, the grit these young women show, the work they put in, the passion they possess, and the friendships that they share are what form such an amazing Papillion-LaVista South Softball team.
