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WHAT ABOUT SUMMER?

Coaches prepare for potentially shortened seasons

WCHS pitcher Tyler Olson works off the mound during a 2019 game at Lynx Field. Olson went 11-1 with a 0.68 ERA a season ago. DFJ file photo/Troy Banning

WEBSTER CITY — As the days roll by — drag by might be a better way to say it — during the COVID-19 pandemic, the starts to the prep baseball and softball seasons inch closer.

Right now, preseason practices are set to get under way on May 18, a little more than two weeks later than originally scheduled. Regular season games are slated to occur on June 1.

Everyone is anxious and no one knows the answer to the one question that hangs in the air: Will they or won’t they happen?

And it’s a question that Webster City coaches Jess Howard and Adison Kehoe grapple with each and every day.

“Right now, we just want to be able to play,” Howard, the Lynx softball coach, said. “We just keep hoping that we’ll get that opportunity. But we also see the big picture … it’s out of our control.”

Kelly Stoakes takes a cut at the plate during a 2019 game. The Webster City sophomore hit .521 with a pair of home runs last summer. DFJ file photo/Troy Banning

Kehoe, the head baseball coach at WCHS, is taking a similar approach. Back when times were normal, he’d be working with his pitchers and catchers on a daily basis right now, but he knows that may be weeks away if it happens at all.

“I’m still very young as a coach, but this whole thing has opened my eyes a little bit to cherish the moments,” he said. “Maybe now during those times when we’re all going through the motions a little bit, this will be a reminder of things.”

Neither coach is allowed to have direct contact with their players, per stipulations put in place by the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. But both have offered encouragement to their players, whether it’s through social media or texts.

“I’ve been sending (the players) at-home workouts so they can continue to work on strength and agility,” Howard said. “We train year around, so even though they might not be touching a softball right now, they can work on skills to better our game.”

A lost season is not what either wants because, the simple truth is, both teams have the potential to put together a magical summer.

The Lynx baseball team is the defending North Central Conference champion and returns eight players with starting experience off last season’s 20-10 roster. WCHS went 12-2 inside the conference despite a crew comprised of a slew of underclassmen.

Tyler Olson, a junior all-state pitcher, is the focal point for the program. He went 11-1 with a 0.68 ERA on the mound and also hit .384 a season ago. Names like Sean Carver, CJ Hisler, Ty McKinney, Devon Stoakes and Beau Klaver also give Kehoe reasons to be excited.

“Looking at our roster and what we bring back, I would hope a lot of these kids, if and when the state allows us to get outside, we can do some accelerated practices,” Kehoe said. “It’s going to be a little chaotic at first, but fun for sure.”

Kehoe also takes a glass-half-full approach when posed with the prospect that the season might not happen.

“We don’t have a senior on the roster,” he said. “I know how hard these boys have working starting in January, so I’d be disappointed that the hard work wouldn’t be showcased. But we’re very young.”

Howard doesn’t have that luxury though. She has several talented seniors — including would-be five-year starting shortstop Taylor McKinney — that can’t fathom an ending that involves no games.

The WCHS softball team went 21-7 a season ago, including 12-2 in the NCC to finish second behind Humboldt. And with so many pieces back, Howard thinks her team has the ability to make another run.

Kelly Stoakes, a sophomore, will be back to lead the offense. She hit .521 with 15 extra-base hits and 21 RBIs last summer. And junior pitcher Jenna Miller pitched every inning inside the conference in 2019. Miller put together a 16-5 record and 2.17 ERA overall.

The current schedule would essentially eliminate the first week of games and would lessen the time teams have to get ready for the conference grind.

“It puts a little more pressure on me to know where to have kids once we start,” Howard said. “But whether it’s a shortened season or a full-length season, we just want to play to be able to show people what we’ve been doing.”

The spring season — track and field, soccer, golf and tennis — is currently suspended until May 1. If those sports do occur, they will push into June and cause overlap with softball and baseball. However, that overlap occurs in May on a yearly basis.

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