ANAMOSA — The ride the 2006 Raider softball team gave their fans this past summer was one filled with so many peaks and valleys, the emotions were similar to a roller coaster ride.

Thrilling. Frightening. Happy. Sad. All the emotions were there all wrapped up in an 18-31 summer on the softball diamond.

“I guess that’s a pretty accurate way to put it,” said Anamosa softball coach Gary Stamp who wrapped up his third season guiding the program.

“We were somewhat snake-bitten this year with all the leads we lost in the sixth or seventh innings, but we also had quite a few games where we came from behind to win late in games. It just didn’t turn out to be as many as we lost late though and that was pretty frustrating, but hopefully a good learning experience for this young team.”

“We picked up some of our biggest wins of the season against Ed-Co, Monticello, Marion, Cedar Rapids Prairie, North Cedar and Humboldt to close the season and then the way we played in our regional quarter-final against DeWitt, that just topped things off.”

Anamosa won 11 of their final 24 regular season games and finished the Tri-Rivers Conference campaign with an 11-11 mark.

“That win over Monticello was huge for us,” said Stamp. “They were the only team to beat us last season and for us to be the only team to knock them off this season was a fitting thing for us to accomplish. Monticello was a very, very good team and we proved, at times, we could be just as good.”

The roller coaster rides of winning and losing streaks ended with Anamosa dropping their final four games at the end of the regular season before hosting Center DeWitt in what would become another one of the Raiders’ shining moments of 2006.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game start where the very first pitch is hit over the fence for a home run,” said Stamp. “We were pretty nerved up coming into that game and that loosened us up really quick.”

The Raiders led 1-0 early on against the Sabers but trailed 3-1 entering the seventh and final frame.

“It wasn’t like we hadn’t come back and won games late this season, but in this situation with this young team, I wasn’t sure what we were going to be able to do,” said Stamp has his club rallied for three runs in the final frame and escaped with a 4-3 victory. “To win a game like that after we had so many losses in games like this was very rewarding.”

While five Raider freshmen were starting at the end of the season and the future of the program looks very bright, Stamp must do without the services of seniors Emily Jansen, Sara Schultejans and Megan Carpenter.

Jansen, Anamosa’s star center fielder, 2006 Golden Glove award winner, first-team all-conference and all-district selection, hit .307 with 25 runs scored, 47 hits, eight doubles and team-best 29 RBIs.

“Emily is the kind of kid everyone would enjoy coaching,” said Stamp. “She’s dedicated, loyal and always comes to the ball diamond with a smile on her face and ready to play hard. She was a leader by example on this team this year and we’ll miss her a lot. Emily always said she patterned her play after watching Becca Schwebke and hopefully some of our younger players coming up will pattern their play after her.”

Schultejans solidified right field for the Raiders hitting .243 with 19 RBIs and a team-best 18 sacrifices.

“Another great veteran kid to have on this roster with so many young players,” said Stamp. “It took Sara a while to get caught back up after missing her sophomore season, but she had a nice senior year for us and her great attitude was a blessing in the dugout.”

Carpenter was Anamosa’s designated hitter most of the summer hitting .195 with four doubles and nine RBIs.

“Megan stuck with the program all five years,” said Stamp. “She earned her spot in the starting line up this year. Nothing was given to her, she worked and stayed in the line-up.”

Mallory Lacy was named team MVP at the post-season awards banquet while Carpenter received the Most Improved Upperclassman. Cammy Dole was named Most Improved Underclassman while Goetz received the Silver Bat award. Kayla Sanborn was named Most Valuable Newcomer while Jackie Engelbart received the Huckledebuck award.

Stamp returns letter winners in Dakota Ahrendsen, Chelsey Bildstein, Kelly Colehour, Traci Dirks, Dole, Engelbart, Goetz, Katie Grassi, Lacy, Ryann Pratt, Sanborn and Maisie Timp.

“We’ve got some talent coming back and some more coming in,” said Stamp. “We should be in good shape next year and then when we make the move to the WaMaC.”

OLIN — It’s been said many times decade after decade after decade in sports. Teams take on the personality of their coach.

That should be very good news for Olin softball fans as Lion coach Blake Reid’s unwavering support for his young team and his ever intense desire to win is taking effect in Olin.

“I really saw this team grow up a lot this year,” said Reid after guiding one of the youngest teams in the Big East Conference to an 8-22 record overall and 3-9 mark in league play.

“Eventually, we believed we could play against anybody. And not only did the girls start believing in that, they started to show it on the field of play too.”

This Olin team will go down in the history books at the school taking their first district softball title in more than 20 years after a huge 9-4 victory over a talented Calamus-Wheatland team July 19.

“We were a team really struggling to find any offense we could until the Andrew doubleheader at the end of the season,” said Reid. “We broke through that day scoring a total of 22 runs winning a pair of games and all of a sudden, just like that we were rolling.”

Olin opened class 1A district play with a big payback 7-2 triumph over Preston and advanced to regionals at district champions for the first time since 1985.

“The Preston and Calamus-Wheatland district games hopefully will carry over for this team to next year,” said Reid. “Those were two huge program building wins and we’ve got the young nucleus to be able to do something pretty special here in Olin.”

While Olin was playing some of their best softball of the summer at the end of the 2006 campaign, the start was a little rougher for a Lion team going through some serious growing pains.

“We got off to a slow start and I guess that was only natural,” said Reid as the Lions were forced to throw eighth-grader Makenzie Ginn to the wolves with an injury sidelining last year’s starting pitcher Kelli Bean. “Like the rest of the team, Makenzie had to get acclimated to her surroundings and she grew into one of the top pitchers in the conference.”

“Not only did we have a great ace to give the softball to, but our No. 2 pitcher had a pretty good year too,” said Block of Maisie Woodward who logged 29 1/3 innings this past season. “She finished the season throwing some of her best softball of the summer. We have a pretty solid 1-2 punch.”

Midland’s punch offensively came from Aubrey Walters, who easily led the Eagles with her .333 batting average, 99 at-bats, 33 hits, 24 RBIs, five doubles, one home run, .434 slugging percentage and .343 on-base percentage. The freshman catcher also fanned just seven times all summer long as well.

“Aubrey is still learning how to be a good defensive catcher but she did a great job handling Erika all summer long,” said Block. “Offensively her batting average jumped more than 100 points from last year. She was our main offensive threat to drive home the girls at the top of the order. Aubrey was one of the few girls on this team who could really hit the ball and hit it hard.
We really mainly relied on our speed to score runs other than when Aubrey was in the batters box.”

Amanda Hansen also added some pop offensively hitting .289 with a team-best 27 stolen bases.

“Amanda really stepped up this year and did well hitting the softball,” said Block. “She deserved that first-team all-conference nod she got.”

A young Eagle team does lose the services of three talented seniors in Coon, Paulsen and Lacy Eganhouse.

Coon hit .219 with 12 RBIs all while playing solid defensively at first base.

“Ashley is a great kid and is someone who had an excellent work ethic,” said Block. “She was our captain and a take charge personality this team needed. She’s also planning on playing softball next year at Mount Mercy.”

Paulsen hit .156 while playing solid defense at third base for the Eagles.

“Melissa demands a lot out of herself,” said Block. “She has a great attitude and is a very coachable kid. She struggled at the plate this year but it never carried over to her defense. We’ll miss her positive attitude in the dugout next summer.”

Eganhouse was Midland’s defensive stopper in left field for Block’s club.

“Lacy was our designated left fielder and one of our most improved players from the start of the season to the finish,” said Block. “Her outfield skills were raw, but she listened and she learned and she wanted to get better and better and she did that in this her senior season.”

While the bad news is the Eagles lose three talented seniors for next year’s club, the good news is nine Eagles return in 2007 looking to lead Midland closer to the top in the Big East Conference.

“We didn’t take any steps backwards this year, in fact I thought we took some significant steps towards building for a very bright future,” said Block. “Not only do we have some talented girls coming back with experience, but we also have some young ones coming up too who should help. We’re taking our softball pretty serious here.”