February 03, 2005
| Head coach Jo Evans returns for her ninth season at the helm of the Texas A&M softball program, which begins Friday as the Aggies host North Texas. Last season, A&M came within one-half game of the Big 12 crown and advanced to the NCAA Regionals for the third straight year. Evans, who earned Big 12 Coach of the Year honors after last season's success, sat down with AggieAthletics.com prior to the start of the season to discuss the upcoming year. Is this the most excited you've been to start a season since you've been at A&M, or maybe since you've been a head coach? "I think so, certainly (while) at A&M. This is a great group of athletes, and this is the most depth we've ever had. It is the most athletic we've ever been and it's nice that we can plug different people in different positions. We have 16 kids on our roster, which doesn't seem like many, but when you've got several that can play different positions it works out great. I'm certainly very excited and I think there is really a great positive energy among the staff and the players and you can see everyone is kind of chomping at the bit ready to go."
Last year's team had a lot of speed, pop and the plate and some solid pitching. Everything kind of came together at once and the team was within a half a game of winning the conference championship. Can you see some of those trends in this team as well? "Yeah. We're even faster than we were last year, which is really exciting. It gives us a lot of options and things we can do with our offense. We've got more depth on the mound now. We don't have that proven star, like (Jessica) Kapchinski (Big 12 Pitcher of the Year), but she kind of came out of nowhere to do what she did (last season). We've got some young pitchers in Jill Weynand and Christina Smith on the mound. We've also added a freshman class that made us faster and gave us more pop at the plate and more depth on the mound, so it was a great recruiting year for us and a nice class we've added to an already talented group." Last year the team went into the last weekend of the regular season with the chance to win the title, a situation none of the players had been in before. Realizing how close they came last season, can the team build off of that experience for this year? "I think so. A huge focus for us in this off-season and going into preparation during the weeks leading up to the season is going to be competing. How competitive can we make our drills and our situations and our scrimmages in practice for those games? When the game is on the line, and we have to step up or hold a team down, how are we going to handle that? It is a huge focus for us right now and we spent the weeks going into our season thinking about that. "I do think the experience from last year will really help us. I think we will be a little more calm in that situation. W e need to have a lot of confidence knowing that, 'Hey, we were that close, and now we're even more talented and we can get over that hump.' I do think last year was great for us in helping us mature and learn how to deal with tough situations." Can you evaluate the fall season, one in which the team went undefeated? "It went great. I think we learned a lot about our team. Our upperclassmen learned that they have some talented young freshmen. I don't really care about the win-loss record in the fall. It is nothing important. We don't play a top-20 schedule, but what I saw was dominance from our team. We've never gone through a fall where we never had a lapse here or there. But this is a team that showed they can come from behind and dominate good teams so that gets us really excited going into this season." Last year's freshman class contributed to the success of the team, and it seems this season the freshmen will be counted on even more so. What is it about this freshman class that gets you excited? "They are incredibly athletic-more athletic than any of our groups collectively. They are versatile and can play many different positions. They bring speed and they can bring power, and two of them pitch. They are just collectively athletic, and they are energetic and love to compete and play the game. They play it hard, and they are pushing our upperclassmen. "Those freshmen that played last year now have a year under their belt. They are more savvy and more mature, people like Sharonda (McDonald) and Laura Durham. Those kids had a great fall. I know these freshmen may be a little nervous going into it because there are high expectations for them, but they have gained a lot of confidence from this fall and the upperclassmen will be a calming influence on them." When you return a large group of starters from a successful team, and bring in as talented as freshman class as you did, do you see the competition level in practices and between individuals elevate? "Absolutely. Our players are so competitive and they compete so hard against each other and against themselves too. Having the level of talent we have has to make us better, because somebody is pushing someone else every day. We have great leadership in our upperclassmen and they have kind of shown the way in terms of work ethic and what we want done in practice, but those freshmen are pushing them everyday and that is exciting." How important is Sharonda McDonald and her speed to the success of an inning or the team in general? "Sharonda's key is confidence at the plate and that she recognize she doesn't have to do too much. We're not asking for her to drive the ball out of the park. We're asking her to put the ball into play and make something happen for our team. Once she gets that confidence she just takes it and runs with it. I've talked with her about even being more aggressive, looking at taking two bases instead of one or three instead of two. She sets the tone for us, so we really need her to get out there, feel good about herself and really make us go." You're bringing in a good bit of speed in this freshman class and you also return Joy Davis, who missed most of last year due to injury. Talk about the increase in the team's overall speed... "We're fortunate that we have Jamie Hinshaw who has good speed too. No one has Sharonda's speed, but that is unusual. Hinshaw hitting behind Sharonda is great because she hits left-handed. She's got pop and she can drag bunt. It's going to make defenses play Sharonda more honestly as far as covering for steals so I'm excited about that. "Joy Davis had a great fall. She stood out and looked so good. She's driving the ball, she's got great speed, and she's almost as quick as Sharonda. Those are people with great speed that we have that we can do a lot with on the base paths." Can you give an overview of the outfield?
"Sharonda of course is very solid out there, and Jana (James) has been really solid for us. Rocky (Spencer), depending on what we have behind the plate, will see time in right. We've also moved Laura Durham into the outfield. She has some learning to do in the outfield, but she's someone who can certainly contribute offensively, so we'll see how that can work out. Lisa Gorzycki is out there as well and another young player, Jamie Lobpries, a freshman who was actually an infielder in high school and summer ball, really plays a great outfield. She gets a better jump than just about anybody and takes good angles. "We've got great options out there and a lot of it will come down to who is swinging the bat, and they know that. It puts a little bit of pressure on them, but you know, if you are swinging the bat, we'll find a place for you." Was outfield defense a pleasant surprise for you last year, for the most part? "Sharonda was an infielder (coming in) and we put her in the outfield and said, 'Well figure this out', and she really did for the most part. She has great range. We really have great speed out there with Jana, Sharonda and Rocky. They cover a whole lot of ground. They take away a lot of extra base hits and do a nice job. They throw the ball well too so defensively I feel great about them. They are very solid and I've really encouraged Sharonda to be a leader and take charge. If she wants to catch a ball in right field, she gets to. I really want her to be the quarterback out there. Defensively, we're very solid in the outfield." The infield obviously centers around your senior shortstop, Adrian Gregory... "Yeah, she's a great leader. I love coaching Adrian. She loves playing the game, as you can tell. You watch her and you know she has a real love for it and our infielders look to her. In fact, our whole team looks to her for leadership, and she is willing to take that on her shoulders and does a nice job with that. She makes all the plays she's supposed to make, has of course a great arm, and is just such a great presence on the field. You couldn't ask for more out of her, which is nice because we're so young out there. "We've got Joy Davis, who looks great and is playing a great second base, but she only got limited time last year because of her injury. You have Jamie Hinshaw and Megan Gibson playing third, both freshmen, so they look to Adrian as a leader. At first base you have Lindsay Park, who does a great job defensively and is a good leader out there, and you have (freshman) Amanda Scarborough as well. "When you have four infielders out there with very limited experience, you look to someone like Adrian to rally the troops and keep us going. Especially with the young pitchers on the mound, she is a calming influence. She knows kind of when to call a time-out and go out there and settle them down a bit." What about your options and versatility in the infield? "Yes, that's the nice thing...we've got a lot of options. We can plug Hinshaw in at second or third. Megan Gibson plays great third base and of course is going to pitch for us. Amanda Scarborough does a great job at first base and is going to pitch too so we can kind of interchange those positions. Joy Davis is really steady at second. It will be nice to have a lot of options and great range out there. And, of course, a lot of it is going to have to do with who is swinging the bat." Nicole Robinson was a very pleasant surprise at catcher last year, but she will be sidelined in the early part of the season due to injury. What about the job she did last season and what are some of your options behind the plate? "We hope she is going to be ready to go. She did a wonderful job last year. She didn't get a whole lot of credit. Typically the pitcher is going to get the credit, but she did a very nice job behind the plate and was a calming influence on Kapchinski, and did a nice job calling pitches. "Morgan (Hebert) and Rocky (Spencer) were back there in the fall and really did a nice job. They worked hard and were really unselfish in what they brought to our team, when they kind of got thrown into that situation. We will certainly use them and certainly see who is going to swing the bat and who is going to do the best job behind the plate, but it is really nice to have options there. "Morgan also plays a great third base. She did a nice job for us there last year. She is in the mix as well out there in the infield, so between catcher and third base, she'll have some opportunities. But both Morgan and Rocky throw the ball well-Morgan especially has a quick release and a great arm. A lot depends on what happens with Nicole." Pitching will probably be the big question mark this year. With two young pitchers returning and two freshmen coming in, will you just have to throw everyone out there early and just kind of see how they adjust or who can step up?
"Absolutely. Christina Smith will probably see limited time initially (due to injury) until she can get herself back in shape and ready to go. Jill (Weynand) saw some good innings last year. (Last year), we got in a situation where Kapchinski was just on fire, so you are going to ride that arm as long as you can. (Jill) did get some good solid innings for us though. "The two freshmen are certainly talented and athletic. It's a matter of putting them out there in tough situations and seeing how they handle that. They are going to take their knocks early on, and I understand that, but that isn't going to keep us from having them out on the mound. We are good enough defensively and offensively that they are going make a mistake here or there and we are going to be able to make up for that. They deserve the opportunity to be out there and be in a rotation and help us win games." Can you talk about your non-conference schedule this season and your overall philosophy of scheduling games outside the Big 12? "I think it is a great schedule. We jump right in and play some great teams. I like that. We could go for 40 wins each year and have our record look great, or we could get out there and really test ourselves against top-20 and top-10 teams and get ourselves ready for conference. "My philosophy is that we ought to play those great teams as often as we can as early as we can, so that when we get into conference play, we've already seen everything we're going to see (in league play). We'll have already seen great pitching, great hitting, and speed on the base paths, all of those things that will test us and make us better. I know that we are going to take some knocks, especially as young as we are, but I'm willing to do that because I think that it prepares us. You can see that last year. We struggled in the preseason. We played a good schedule and took our knocks from them, but when we got into conference play, we were already confident in what we were capable of doing and we had already seen great teams. There wasn't going to be any surprises for us come conference. I like scheduling like that, and we'll continue to do so." Can you handicap the conference race? "Obviously Texas is going to be greatly improved with (U.S. Olympic team pitcher Cat) Osterman on the mound, and they've done a great job of recruiting, so they have some good athletes. I would say probably going into it, they are going to be the team to beat. Oklahoma is going to have a great team this year. Last year they struggled a little bit in conference play, as they were a little down, but I say that and then they end up in the World Series. They are going to be great, led by (senior catcher Heather) Scaglione, (senior first baseman Christina) Enea and (senior pitcher Kami) Keiter, along with some good young talent. "Of course, I think that we're going to be right there in the mix and all that is going to depend on our young players-how they deal with their failures and their challenges and how much confidence they have going into our conference season. I fully expect them to be seasoned veterans, so to speak, by then. Baylor is going to have a great year as well. They have some good young players and a good pitching staff and I think they'll compete well. Missouri has (senior pitcher Erin) Kalka back, and she has really been the backbone of that team and made them go. Oklahoma State has a freshman pitcher, Marjorie Johnson, who will do a nice job for them and she'll shore up their pitching staff. They had a nice year last year so I think they'll continue to improve. "It is going to be a race. Nebraska is going to be interesting to see because (pitcher and Big 12 player of the year) Peaches James was a lot of that team. She had to have a lot of support, but she certainly was the leader emotionally and physically and did a great job on the mound for them. They are the team that is maybe the biggest question as to how they will bounce back because they don't have the pitching staff they had in the past." This is the first season of the NCAA "regional" and "super regional" format, exactly like in baseball. Is hosting a regional a goal that the team feels they really want to strive to get? "It's not something we've talked about a lot. As a coaching staff, we firmly believe we've got a great shot at hosting and should have that opportunity if we play well. I'm sure as we move along, that is something we'll talk about more (as a team). I want to make sure our focus stays on what is happening now, but I certainly think that we will have a great opportunity to do that." What are some of the team's goals for this season? "The expectation of our team is to win the conference championship. Everything we do in practice and in games is working towards that-that is the main goal. Our team fully believes that they can do that. Our biggest expectations are that we win the conference championship and we compete in the College World Series. We just feel like we are at that point in our program where, athletically, we are capable of doing that. Now it just remains to be seen if we have the maturity and the presence and the confidence to be able to get that done with a young squad." |
