Lady Tigers eager for season debut

Thursday, March 10, 2016
The Lady Tigers begin their season on Thursday, March 10.

The Lady Tigers launched their softball season on Saturday in what the team anticipates will be a successful year for the high school team.

Ron Nicolosi, who coaches the Lady Tigers' varsity team, applauded his team's performance during a jamboree that included boys and girls teams from Wood River, Emmett and Borah high schools.

"It allows us to practice under game-like conditions against an opponent," Nicolosi said regarding the jamboree. "It also provides a game setting for our conference umpires to come and practice also."

The jamboree represents a win-win for everyone involved, the coach added.

"The rules are relaxed, so we make more changes than normal to give ourselves a chance to evaluate players at many positions plus try different things in a more relaxed setting," he said.

During the day, the coach saw some good things from the Lady Tigers both offensively and defensively. However, he added the team needed to work this week on dealing with certain situations on the field as the team prepares for its season opener at Borah on Thursday, March 10.

"We are young and need more experience in game situational play but will not use that as an excuse," Nicolosi said. "We will challenge the girls often with situations and other fundamentals of the game, and I'm sure we can turn the corner fairly quickly."

The Lady Tigers will count on returning lettermen Paris Mederos, Ryan Floyd, Breanna Tindall and Ashten Harrigan to help bring along the team's younger players. However, they will be without returning player Tialyn Salle, who was injured during the high school's basketball season, and she's expected to miss the entire softball season.

She is a big loss but will be our manager for us this year, and we hope she'll be back next year," Nicolosi said.

The chemistry the coach saw this weekend was very positive and should move the team in the direction he wants it to go.

"We look forward to the challenge of playing in the toughest 4A conference in Idaho," Nicolosi said.

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