After three straight losing seasons in the Berks League, the Tulpehocken High School softball team reached the .500 mark last year with a 5-5 league record. The goal is to continue the upward surge and at least have a winning season this year.
Head coach John Gilmer is optimistic about his team’s chances of doing just that. Yes, the team is young, but there is some talent there to give Tulpy fans a lot to cheer about.
“Our season should be much better than last season,’ said Gilmer. “We will be a very young, but talented, team with a couple of seniors sprinkled in. It’s too early to tell for sure, but we may have as many as five new faces in the line-up.’
If you look at the Lady Trojans, you will see a lot of young players. But that doesn’t mean there is no experience. This is a team that played a lot of freshmen last year. They got a lot of precious varsity experience that will only make them better this year.
“Our strength will be in our commitment to improve,’ said Gilmer. “We have a nucleus that wants to win now. With so many younger players, our success will depend on how quickly they adapt to the varsity level. We played a number of freshman last year and that should show benefits.’
Weather hasn’t been kind to the Berks County teams this spring. There have been a lot of indoor practices going on throughout the county. The Trojans got around that problem last week by spending a few days in Florida to practice. It was a good opportunity for the girls to get some outside practices in, plus a few days in the warm sunshine gave the team a break from the cold weather up here.
Already the weather has play havoc with the schedule for the county teams. Rain last week canceled or postponed all of Tulpehocken’s non-league games. It doesn’t look like the Trojans will get many pre-season games in before the Berks League schedule gets underway. That will only make it tougher for the many new faces to the Tulpehocken softball team. That being said, it will still be a very interesting season for the Tulpehocken girls. They have the potential for a very good season, but it’s impossible to predict at this point.
“I’m anxious to see what we have,’ said Gilmer. “We have a lot of talent on this team and it will be fun to see what they can do.’
