Youth in sports is like a double edged sword at times. Coaches know they have talent for more years to come but inexperience weighs in a big factor as well.

For the West Central Valley softball team, their 2017 season was dominated with youth as head coach Coy Hupfeld had at least 4 underclassmen in the starting role for at least 23 of the 28 games played. On the flip side the Lady Wildcats did have a good amount of upperclassmen leadership which produced 55% of the teams runs driven in.

Regardless of any downsides, coach Hupfeld mentioned how his youth will blend in nicely as a positive for the 2018 campaign.

“We have that cohesiveness but also we just have a lot of youth. We were a fairly young team (this season), a couple times started a few eight graders. Moving forward the girls have that good senior leadership and junior leadership heading into next season,” stated coach Hupfeld.

Coach Hupfeld also noted that he hopes the progress developed by the Lady Wildcat youth will put a spark into a certain aspect for the 2018 season.

“Getting the youth excited about playing softball which haven’t really seen at this school district a whole lot but with the great leadership that we have with our junior class who’re about to be seniors, we think we can improve on that,” explained coach Hupfeld.

The Lady Wildcats have 7 of their top 8 batters and 88% of the teams 2017 offense coming back for the 2018 season.