This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.
Countless athletes have left their mark on the Sandite Softball Complex in the 23 years since it opened, including 31 All-State players.
As the Sandites get ready for the 2022 season, they’ll attempt to replace some of those stars while looking for new talent to elevate the program and add to the legacy.
Charles Page High School is coming off an 18-15 campaign and will have some big shoes to fill after graduating All-State selections Jolee McNally and Raegan Rector, as well as Lauren Hammock, Taylor Skipper, and All-State alternate Avery Tanner.
“They were just such a great group of seniors, all five of them,” said Shelli Brown, who is entering her 26th year as head coach.
“They provided leadership in different ways from being on the field to being vocal and talking to the kids and trying to keep them up.”
Despite that star-studded leadership, last year’s team came up a hair shy of making it to the State Tournament after falling to eventual State finalist Owasso at Regionals.
After a five-year streak of Regional Championships, the Sandites haven’t made it back to Hall of Fame Stadium since 2019.
“Anytime we don’t make it to the state tournament is disappointing,” Brown said. “That’s just our goal. It’s our expectation.”
“That’s what we work for year round is to get us in the best possible spot to get there and when you put in all that effort (and we had a great group of senior kids and I felt really bad for them because they had worked so hard). When you fall that short and you put in that much time and effort it just kind of lets you down a little bit because we didn’t get to where our goals were.”
As the Sandites look for new leadership to step up this year, Brown says it could even come from some of the underclassmen.
“I think it’s not only going to be leadership from my senior group, but I think we’re gonna have a couple kids in the junior group and one or two in the sophomore group that are going to step in and provide some of that leadership we’re going to need.”
“That whole sophomore group, they’re probably more my vocal group. I expect a lot from some of those sophomores.”
Mikenna Stephens, Ashlyn Clark, Addie Hughes, and Kenzie King all got good playing time last season and show a lot of promise.
“I’ll be interested to see how Addie will do on the mound,” said Brown. “She’s really worked hard in the offseason. She’s really been working on her spin and she’s had some success this summer.”
Hughes pitched 19 innings last season with a 1-1 record and 3.2 ERA behind Kelsi Hilton and Nataley Crawford.
Hilton went 10-6 with a 4.54 ERA and is expected to carry most of the weight this year. Crawford was 5-6 with a 4.23 ERA.
While the pitching staff is mostly intact, the batting lineup took some huge losses. Fortunately, the team will have an ace up their sleeve.
After taking a break from softball last season, Jaden Jordan will be back for her senior year.
“That’s going to add some power to our lineup that we had lost,” said Brown.
Jordan was an All-District first baseman as a sophomore and batted .436 with a team-best .734 slugging average. She hit four home runs and a grand slam that year.
Hilton is also expected to bring some heat at the plate after batting .413 last season.
While the Sandites look to get back to the State tournament and beyond, they’ll be looking to their past for inspiration. Sand Springs has won 17 regional titles and has a long history of success.
“I think it makes a big difference and we try to promote that history in our complex,” said Brown.
“We’ve got banners everywhere. All of our All-Staters are up on the wall. Every Regional tournament we’ve won is up on the wall. Every State tournament we’ve been to is up on the wall.”
“We talk about it all the time. Go around and look at these things. Look at the kids and what they’ve done. Look at the history.”
Sand Springs has a unique history in that most of the town’s accomplishments have come from native Sandites. While other 6A programs tend to get a lot of move-ins, Sand Springs benefits from an exceptional local youth program.
“Most of our kids have all been Sandites who grew up and played ball in the town that they live in. That’s kind of unique. I don’t know if that happens as much as it used to.”
Those Sandites continue to contribute to the program after graduation as well, as Brown’s staff frequently includes her former players.
The Sandites kicked off the season with their first practice on July 18th and the biggest task for this young group of Sandites will simply be building team chemistry.
“We’ve got a lot of kids that work really hard and love softball; we’ve just got to get the chemistry together. Over the last two years I’ve graduated twelve or so kids so we’re young in some spots.”
“You’re going to have some kids out of position when you graduate that many. You’re going to have kids in different spots and they’re going to have to get used to each other.”
“That’s kind of what we worked on in the spring. That’s one thing I love about spring ball is that I can focus on our defense and they can work on getting each other’s timing down. What are your strengths? What are our weaknesses? Work on base running and some of those things where there’s just not the pressure you have in fall ball with every game.”
Once that chemistry is established, the sky is the limit.
“We just have to work on producing runs, playing good defense, continue to work on the mental game.”
“They know what kind of work it takes to get to where we want to go.”
