By Chris Bennett
Sports Correspondent
The Waterford Union High School softball team announced its award winners after a season in which the consistent growth of a young team meant as much as winning games.
Junior Myranda Schuttenhelm repeated as the team’s Most Valuable Player. Gabi LePine earned the Most Improved Player award and Courtney Sayer earned the honor as Best Teammate.
Schuttenhelm earned Honorable Mention honors and is the Wolverines’ only All-Southern Lakes Conference softball team selection.
The Wolverines completed their first season under coach Steve Kirst with an 8-17 record. Waterford went 3-11 in SLC play and finished seventh.
The Wolverines played much better their second time through the conference schedule. Kirst is the program’s fourth coach in as many years, and is already looking to next season.
“We only graduate two seniors – Paige Michealson and Reilly Kent,” Kirst said. “However, both played vital roles that will be hard to replace both offensively and defensively.
“Paige was the workhorse on the mound for us, pitching the most innings, and Reilly was behind the plate for all our games.”
The departure of the two seniors means opportunity exists next season for young players to contribute to the team’s success.
“There’s a huge opportunity for some younger players to step in and take charge,” Kirst said. “I’m very anxious to see how much improvement we’ll see out of our underclassmen after a season of summer leagues and fall ball.”
Kirst said the Wolverines started as many as seven underclassmen this past season, including two freshmen. Nine of Waterford’s losses came against state-ranked teams from either Wisconsin or Ohio. Waterford played teams from Ohio during a preseason trip to Florida.
The Wolverines also play in the state’s toughest conference in the Southern Lakes. Union Grove in Division 1 and Delavan-Darien in Division 2 advanced to this weekend’s WIAA state softball tournament in Madison.
Union Grove and Westosha Central in Division 1 and Delavan-Darien in Division 2 spent most of the season ranked in the top five in the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association/WisSports.net state poll.
The improvement by Waterford softball between this season and last season is proved by statistics.
Kirst said Waterford stole 28 more bases, scored 44 more runs and earned 35 more walks this season than last. The Wolverines also increased both their slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
On the mound, Waterford threw for 56 more strikeouts, and improved the team’s strikeout to walk ratio from 1.9 strikeouts for every walk to 2.7 strikeouts for every walk, per nine innings.
“We steadily improved game after game, and we grew as a team the second half of the season,” Kirst said.
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