This league is a very tough league,” said Ty Cook, head coach for the Quaker softball team. “But on any given day, we can beat anyone in the conference, I think. It’s just a matter of confidence and consistency.” Halfway through the season, the softball team currently holds a 7-15 record, with three wins and three losses in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). Last year, the team went 9-25, with four of those nine wins in conference competition. As of April 4, the squad ranked fourth in the 2005 ODAC standings.
According to Cook, there are nine softball teams in the conference, and six will make it to the ODAC tournament April 22-24. Next year Sweet Briar College will join the conference, bringing the total number of teams to ten.
If the team holds on to the current ranking, they will make it to the tournament. However, feelings of discouragement were high after two losses to Bridgewater College on April 3, when the Eagles were ahead at the end of the final inning of both games by only one run.
“We need to learn to finish,” said senior catcher Ashley Cooke. “We need to learn to put the stake in them, and not let them come back at the end and beat us.”
Coach Cook has faith that the team will do just that.
“Consistency is our issue,” Cook said. “It’s one step at a time, I feel like we’re much better than that. They’re much stronger as a team than as a bunch of individuals.”
Cook has experience with helping a softball team “learn to finish.” She spent five years coaching for the Bluffton University team in Bluffton, Ohio. Under Cook, the team had a record of 87-96-1, with a conference record of 38-27-1.
The team took the conference championship in 1999. Notably, Cook received the conference Coach of the Year title that season – which was also her first year as a coach.
Appointed Guilford’s head coach in June 2003, this is Cook’s second year with the softball team, which was revived in the 2002-03 season after a 12-year break. The last team played in 1990 and was led by Coach Charles Arrington, ’88.
“(1990) was the first year for fast-pitch softball,” said Arrington in a phone interview. “We did pretty well, considering. There was a lot of interest in the team, and it was sad that it was cut due to budgetary concerns.” Arrington now coaches football and girls’ track at Eastern Randolph high school in Ramseur, N.C., and said he occasionally comes to watch Quaker sports teams play.
The Quakers have yet to face Lynchburg and Roanoke, who are ranked numbers one and two in ODAC standings. Guilford’s game against Roanoke was planned for March 23 but canceled due to rain. As of press time, the game had been tentatively rescheduled for April 14. The team plays Lynchburg at home on April 17, on the Haworth fields.
“The game plan is to play to the best of our ability,” said senior outfielder Jennifer Franklin.
Cooke agreed.
“We can’t be afraid of a jersey,” she said. “Whether we’re playing against number one or number nine, we have to play the best that we can.”
“I wish them a lot of success,” said Arrington.
The Quakers will play at Randolph Macon Women’s College at 2 p.m. on April 10. Their next home game, against Emory & Henry, is on April 16, also at 2 p.m.