In Wave softball, youth will be served... and pitched to
By Don McDermott

Six freshmen and five sophomores play for the Greenville High School (GHS) Lady Wave fast-pitch team. So youth will not so much be served, as endured by opponents of the Wave, one of Ohio's consistently strong and successful D-II teams for the last 12 seasons.

The Wave's 7-2 win against Vandalia-Butler on Wednesday, April 16 gave coach Jerrod Newland his 300th win (in 361 starts over 11-plus seasons) at GHS.

With 10 wins in 12 games played through April 16, the Lady Wave is off to another incredible start. While the Wave's lone junior, Ally Russell, has born the brunt of the pitching load, coach Jerrod Newland has watched the team prevail because of contributions from all 17 players on the roster.

The freshmen are Karsyn Shaffer, Rachel Hickerson, Alli Hill, Makayla Hanes, Logan Tabler and Sara Strait. The sophomores are Sarah Wenning, Faith Riegle, Ashton Kester, Allison Minnich and Jazzlyn Petry.

Of course, no team can survive in the competitive world of big time prep softball in Ohio without senior leadership.

The core group of seniors at GHS has won 32 of 34 Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division games and they are 89-20 in all starts in three-plus seasons, including the playoffs.

The seniors are led by Haleigh Luce, who recently signed with Capital University in Columbus. They include Brionna Greer, Meghan Hanes, Karlee Lennen and Elizabeth Reed.

"We do not expect the girls to ever let down," says Newland, during a recent interview at Stebbins Field. "All I know is that every day is an adventure with this group of girls. We push them pretty hard and I think that's expected of us now. I guess we do demand perfection.

"That is why we have '6-7-14' on our t-shirts. June 7, 2014 is the date of the state D-II finals. We expect to be at Akron," states
Newland. The 2007 team won a state championship and the 2010 team made it to the final four. But in 2013, the Wave was denied a trip to Akron when Kenton Ridge rallied for a 6-2 win in the regional finals at Mason.

"I remember when I first took this job. The gym was packed when I was introduced as coach. I predicted we would win 20 games in my first season. And this was when Greenville was having trouble winning six," said Newland. "We finished 20-10 that first season...since then, we have won at least 25 games each season. It was all about confidence."

Assisting Newland are Denny Ruble, Beth Arnold, John Davis and Laura Swigart. Kris Garrison directs the grounds crew.

Said Newland, "Every game for us is like 'Friday Night Lights' for the football team. There is excitement in the community about our program. Look what they did at Stebbins Field."

The softball complex off Ohio Route 49 has four regulation diamonds, where seventh, eighth and junior varsity teams can play or practice without interfering with the operations of the varsity. Included in the complex is a stadium that seats more than 300 and lacks nothing...except lights (and that is a future possibility).

"And have you ever seen a scoreboard like that?" asked Newland. The free-standing scoreboard is about 20 feet high by 30 feet wide and is powered by electricity.

"And the letters and numbers are in red," said Newland. Which means, of course, every time the Wave plays at home, it is a red-letter day.

With no apologies for the pun.

Newland, earlier in the day, had directed a Wave practice, then joined the assistant coaches to distribute multi-colored t-shirts to grade-school age girls, "... the future of our game," said the smiling coach.