Winning is Contagious
Senior Brooke Dixon anchors the Piedmont infield.
Piedmont—Somebody needs to check the water, or maybe the food served in the cafeteria at
During this current school year, every sport at
With the baseball team being ranked in the top 10 since the start of the season, softball is now continuing the winning ways with a 12-3 record. So what is giving athletes in
“Football got the players excited for basketball. Volleyball got the girls excited for basketball. Our girl’s basketball team winning so much seemed to make the boys want to win. The success from one team carried over to the next team.”
Not to say that all this was done without some very good coaching. Deerman, who has gone through some very lean times in his four-year coaching career in both basketball and softball stuck with it and stuck to his philosophy. He helped the girl’s believe in themselves and all of a sudden things started to click.
The softball team returned five seniors this year, Brooke Dixon, Heather Cain, Kylea Cook,
“These seniors have spoiled us. They are great leaders and are just “golden.” They know what they are supposed to be doing at practice, and as coaches we can go and take care of the field and do other things and we know that the girls are doing their throwing drills. The team has good chemistry and it all comes about from this senior leadership.”
“Miranda doesn’t throw real hard but she locates her pitches. We have faith in her that with a 3-2 count she will throw a strike. She has a change ball and a rise ball and we are very confident with her on the mound.” Givens has been pitching for
Cain is back on the mound after missing last season with a torn ACL. The senior has surprised Deerman with how quickly she has come back. “I thought Heather would be behind for most of the season but she has surprised me,” says Deerman. “She is doing great. She has a good change-up and when she catches up we are going to have two ace pitchers.”
In her first five games of the season, Cain, who has been starting for the Bulldogs since the 9th grade, had an ERA of .76.
Defensively
Cook is excellent behind the plate, she simply doesn’t let anything get by her and has such a great arm that opposing runners don’t try to steal very often.
Cain and
“Brooke has improved at the plate more than anyone,” says Deerman of his top hitter. “She is real patient and does a good job. She is very hard to get out. She has good speed.”
Also helping out offensively is junior Miranda Stewart who Deerman describes as his “power hitter.”
Even though five of his softball players also played basketball, Deerman feels this group is a lot more confident in softball. “They don’t like losing in softball. They are very competitive and the more they win the more competitive they are.”
The past three years the softball season has started out slowly for
Despite their success, Deerman is quick to remind his girls that these games played early on in the season are not the most important ones. “It’s not where you start but where you finish,” Deerman tells his team, and they have a poster to remind them of that.
Last year Piedmont went 6-0 in their area, only to get beat 3-2 by
Deerman teaches his team lessons learned from his father, former coach Mike Deerman. “I teach discipline, hard work and hustle. If each player isn’t doing this then no matter who they are they will be sitting out. The girls need to know that later in life when they have a job if they are not producing they will get fired. My dad taught me that teaching life skills is just as important as teaching about the game.”
With the success of Piedmont sports, it appears these lessons are working for the future and the present.
Lori Tippets
Highschoolgameday
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