The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters High School (SHS) was in jeopardy of not fielding a softball team for the first time in nearly 20 years, but a final last-minute recruiting push will enable SHS to field a 2016 varsity team.

The prospects for an Outlaw squad was looking very bleak late last week as numbers were at an all-time low and most practices consisted of a half-dozen players.

However, a handful of players recruited five additional players, and Coach Dave Smith believes he'll have a roster of 13 when the Outlaws open the season on March 15.

"(Athletic Director) Tim Roth and I had a meeting with the girls the other day (March 9) and told them we were looking at dropping the program because of the lack of interest/participation," said Smith. "One of the girls suggested another meeting. I was very skeptical, because I did not see us picking up any more players as I was getting reports from our juniors and seniors that they were striking out on their end recruiting."

The second meeting was held March 10, and Outlaw softball has a steady heartbeat.

"I was figuring this was going to be a meeting about not having a program, when the girls just started walking into the room," noted Smith. "The freshman girls had gone out and recruited the new girls. We will have a team of 13, which is a very comfortable number."

The Outlaws were scheduled to open the season on March 15 hosting Crook County's varsity, but with the late addition of the new players, the Outlaws played CCHS's junior varsity.

The Outlaws will open the varsity season at home on April 1, hosting Madras, and at La Pine on April 2. Sky-Em League play is slated to begin April 4 at Cottage Grove.

Due to the low turnout, the Outlaws also dropped out of the multi-team Bend Tournament, an event they have played in for the last five seasons.

"We knew numbers might be an issue after the last few seasons without a junior varsity team," said Smith. "With the late additions, we didn't feel we had enough time to prepare for the (Bend) tournament (scheduled for March 21-22)."

Smith replaced Cierra Jones, who guided the Outlaws to a two-year record of 7-36 in 2014 (2-20) and 2015 (5-16).

The Outlaws will be returning four players - seniors Zoey Nason and Leah McIntosh and juniors Kylie Stiener and Amanda Smith. A third junior is transfer Shauna Ferrell. Haley Maglecic is the lone sophomore on the squad.

The freshmen include Sofia Affatati, Beth Ann Yount, Sara Hartford, Grace Maiden, Nancy Montecinos, Kennedy Smith and Marie Coffey.

"All the returning girls are taking a leadership role in helping each other out," said Smith, a former travel ball coach. "My goal as a coach is to build confidence in these young women and to see them excel in both athletics and in the classroom. I want them to have a positive experience with the game."

Smith is looking forward to more complete practices, noting that workouts since practices officially began two weeks ago featured as few as five players.

"We will be going back to the basics and fundamentals of catching, throwing, hitting, base running and fielding," said Smith. "I will be in need of some pitchers to relieve Amanda Smith, and we have had McIntosh, Ferrell and Yount wanting to step up and start learning how to pitch."

The issue of declining enrollment at SHS is noticeable. In 2006-07, SHS had an enrollment of 558, and has lost students each year following.

Roth said the lack of softball prospects has to do "with decline in enrollment and limited youth feeder programs." He noted that track was down last year, but was up "significantly" this

year.

Despite steady declining enrollment dating back 10 years (according to OSAA reports), SHS continues to offer a full slate of spring sports - baseball, boys golf, girls golf, girls track, boys track, girls tennis, boys tennis, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse.

Smith added how thankful he was to Roth's supports and efforts to keep the program alive.

"He (Roth) has been a driving force and has had positive attitude in getting this sport off the ground and filling the numbers," said Smith. "He has been supportive from day one since I have come on board."