Summer Tuesday nights are alright for Polk County’s softball squad

Laughter rang out often across Polk County High’s softball field on Tuesday night as Jeff Wilson shouted out various make-believe game scenarios to the Wolverine players assembled there.

So too did line drives ring. Lots and lots of line drives.

It has become a summer tradition for Polk County softball, four Tuesday nights spanning June and July in which players are invited to grab a bat and glove and take part in offseason workouts. Nearly 20 players did so Tuesday night, the third of this year’s four sessions, including most of the returning players from the 20-5 squad that reached the second round of the state 2A playoffs in May.

“You can’t get much better attendance and much better play than tonight,” Wilson said.

“These girls, at the core, want to win. They want to get better. We worked on a lot of stuff tonight.”

Returnees such as Hayley Kropp, Ashley Scruggs, Ashley Kropp, Maddy Foy and Alexis McCraw were joined by rising freshmen such as Autumn Owen, Karli Wood, Haley Fowler and Maranda Gosnell. The mix of veterans and newcomers worked for some two and a half hours, honing skills before taking part in workout-ending game scenarios. That allowed Wilson a chance to have some fun, doing more play-by-play commentary than coaching.

“We work like crazy,” Wilson said. “The first hour and a half is skills and drills. The last hour we give them some game situations to work on.”

Wilson started the Tuesday workouts some 15 years ago to provide Polk players an outlet for summer practice.

“We didn’t have any travel ball here, so this became like travel ball,” Wilson said. “This was one thing the girls could do to in the summer to work on softball.”

The sessions also allow the squad to begin to form the bonds of teammates, a theme that Wilson talked about often during Tuesday’s workout. Based on the smiles each player seemed to sport at night’s end, that mission seems to be working.

“This group is coming together and staying focused on their goals,” Wilson said. “They want to get better.”