After two years of losses, the girls’ softball team has slowly, but surely, worked their way out of a hole, keeping the faith that someday, they’ll come out on top.
When a young high school team has gone winless for the last two years, you never know what to expect at the beginning of a new season.
The team can go in one of two directions. It can go down, way down, and lose all hope of ever pulling out a “W.” Or it can slowly climb up, confidence growing minutely, game by game, until all of a sudden the losing streak is unexpectedly broken.
This year, the Malibu High girl’s softball team, learning on the job, playing with no seniors on the roster, is moving up and getting better every game.
Under the leadership of Libby Simonton and Lindsay Kramer, the Sharks are 2-4 so far this season.
Of junior Simonton, head coach Carley Westling said, “She’s been on the team all through high school, and she’s got what it takes. She has the skills and maturity.”
The girls beat Cornerstone Christian on opening day, and recorded their second victory over Archer.
The team’s recent improvement, said assistant coach David Warshawski, has more to do with a change in the girls’ mental attitude than anything else. Warshawski was head coach two years prior to Westling taking the position.
“They expected to lose,” Warshawski said. “Two years ago, every game we played we lost on a Mercy Rule. Last year we stuck with teams. This year the girls believe they can win.”
Although down 14-1 in their first home game of the season on Friday against Frontier league-powerhouse Calabasas, the girls refused to quit. As Malibu’s leadoff hitter Simonton approached the box her teammates on the bench cheered her on yelling, “Only 15 more runs, Sharks!”
If perseverance is a running theme on this squad, so is youth. The team consists of zero seniors and three juniors, and the rest are sophomores and freshmen who would normally be honing their skills at the junior varsity level. But since the underclassmen have playing experience, they have been brought up to the varsity team. The team’s starting pitcher, Lisa-Marie Kohrs, is a freshman. There are 27 girls on the varsity and junior varsity teams combined.
“The main difference this year is the amount of interest that we have,” Westling said. “This year we have a pretty big program.”
The Sharks’ coaches are green as well. Westling, just 23 years old, played college softball in Northern California and Oregon and has made her way south to Malibu for her first ever head-coaching job. She recently received her teaching credentials at Long Beach State, and hopes to be an English teacher.
“She’s strict with them, she’s tough,” Warshawski said of Westling. “She emphasizes conditioning and strategy.”
Warshawski, a native of the Bronx, taught in New York and helped out with a high school team there before coming to Malibu High to teach and coach. He plans to attend grad school at Pepperdine soon, and stepped down as head coach last year to pursue that goal. The Malibu coaching job was also his first.
“My goal is for the girls to not make mental mistakes,” Warshawski said of this season.
Although they have yet to win a league game, the team is headed in the right direction after pulling out two early victories. Confidence plays a major part in victories, and Westling thinks her team is gaining in that department.
“I think that they can now see that they are capable of winning,” Westling said.
The Sharks play next at Santa Paula on April 9.