Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Rodney Bowman takes over the Cardinal Stritch softball program, and he’s excited about the makeup of the roster.
“What I like about the team is we actually have girls that have never played the game before up to girls that are very experienced, and the culture we're creating is everybody deserves to be on the field,” Bowman said. “Everybody's going to learn, and I think even in the short time period we've been together, which has been a few weeks, the girls themselves, especially the more experienced ones, the coaches, and myself, we see them taking the other girls aside and actually instructing them. I think we're building a great team culture.”
Bowman is a 1984 graduate of Stritch, and he is a member of the school’s board of directors. He coached travel softball for years before taking a break after his daughter went off to college.
“I had an opportunity to take over the program this year, and the transition just seemed seamless for me,” he said.
The Cardinals won just a couple games last year before falling to Danbury in a sectional final. They also graduated a pair of key offensive players in Kenzie Kinnie and Cadence Zgurich, who batted .649 and .625, respectively.
This year’s team features three seniors in Kennedy Burzynski, Jasmine Peek, and Abby Shull. Burzynski will see time at both corner infield spots, while Peek will compete at catcher, third base, and shortstop.
The coaching staff is still figuring out where Shull will play defensively. She recently rejoined the team after being in concussion protocol.
“Kennedy and Jasmine definitely have stepped up and are showing their senior leadership on the team,” Bowman said. “They're both experienced. They're working with some of the girls who are not as experienced, and their senior leadership is going to be big for the team.”
Bowman said that sophomore Aryana Alonzo will be the team’s No. 1 pitcher.
“She will be a leader this year and future leader as well of this team,” he said. “She's taken a lot of the team under her wing.”
Sophomore Addison Gawle will see time at centerfield and shortstop, and Bowman said another sophomore, Brooklyn Gilford, is joining the team for the first time.
“In the first indoor practice, (Brooklyn) was throwing third to first and tracking balls down,” Bowman said. “We will work with anyone. (The players) are literally improving practice after practice. Are we going to win the conference and the division and regionals this year? No. We know that. But we're going to be better than last year because of what they are putting into it. It's a very fun team to coach, let me put it that way.”
As can probably be assumed, the program will focus a lot on fundamentals under the direction of Bowman.
“We talk about it every practice. Our expectation is to become a much stronger fundamental team — understand bases, understand what is going on in the field, cut the errors down,” Bowman said. “We talk to the girls a lot, and I know last year they got blown out a lot by some much better teams, and we said, ‘Look, if you got blown out last year, theoretically 20 to nothing by a team, and we lose this year 10 to 3, that's a huge win because we've changed how we're approaching the game.”
Bowman said the team has a pair of assistants in Mario Alonzo and Chris Moses. Alonzo returns, while Moses joins the team for the first time after his daughter played with Bowman’s daughter at St. Ursula.
“The girls have two coaches that they've never met before, but they are absorbing everything we are talking to them about, and we're throwing a lot at them,” Bowman said. “The team is a team even very early on.”
