High School

[Softballdad]

Talk started about this time last year. Will Burg be back on top again or will some other teams catch up to them this season?

[ManitouDan2]

Will be fun to watch , the distance between Burg and everyone else has certainly shrunk since Burg graduated several awesome seniors . But P Sarah Claxon has been waiting for her time to shine and she's really good , So the cupboard is far from empty . But big holes to fill as their P , C , 3b , and SS are gone , maybe others . And minford is ripe with talent and experience , large amount out playing high level travel , against really good comp. Their sophomore pitcher looked great in travel ball games this fall ( WV Dusters ) . Don't know much about other teams but those two should win a large majority of their games next spring. Ironton will def have some talent and pitching.
In D4 Clay and Leesburg Fairfield are deep and talented . Clay brings about everyone back from a solid team and Fairfield does too , at least their P for sure , Soph Katie White .

[Oddthomas]

Fairfield is D3 this year! Had to add 20 for competitive balance

[ManitouDan2]

Thanks Odd Thomas , didnt know that . Sure opens thing up for Clay to march thru the district. Dont think any other d4 in the area can come close to them . But being a huge favorite doesnt always work out either.

[SoftballGirl]

Clay returns 9 girls from last years team , 8 of which were starters on last years 28-2 Regional Semi Final team. Returning starters include 1 Sophomore, 6 Juniors and 1 Senior. They also have a few Freshman that moved up from the middle school team that went something like 26-4.

[Oddthomas]

The D3 SE district is already loaded, and now throw Fairfield into the mix!

[Browns30]

Oak Hill should be competitive this year

[Dadof28]

Don’t forget the Streaks!! They had a good tournament run last year!

[Severino]

The Burg will simply reload, a highly successful Freshman class with extensive travel ball experience. Coach Ruby can take these kids and play them where they are needed. I think Oak Hill, Minford and Northwest will be good as well.

[ColdHardTruth]

Burg will still be the team to beat in their conference. They didn't pull up many Freshman buy a couple of them are talented. Plenty of talent in the other classes though.

Minford will be good but lost more than they gained.
Same thing can be said about West, Valley, North West. But all of these programs still have plenty of upperclassmen talent.

The other SOC is really an interesting and competitive league though.
Clay is EASILY the front runner, no one cab argue that. But behind them it was a DOG FIGHT!

Wrap your head around this... Anything could happen almost all season.
New Boston beat Symmes Valley
Eastern beat Notre Dame
Green beat Eastern
Western beat Green...

Keep an eye on Notre Dame, they lost a couple pieces and a controversial coaching change. Still a lot of talent.

Green won 9 games with only Freshmen and Sophomores and 1 pitcher and a new coach last season! Combine that with their incoming Freshman class that adds hitters and a good pitcher and they will make noise.

New Boston is at the peak of their window. This is their class. Talented seniors. It's now or never for them.

The only givens in this league is a Clay will be good. East will be bad.

[ManitouDan2]

Thanks for the updates - Other than Pica who all did Minford graduate ? And who all graduated from ND ? Ball and the other girl that transferred in a couple years. ago ? maybe the assistant's daughter ? And did ND make a hire yet ? Is Hagan S still there or did she graduate ?

[mglight88]

Minford also graduated Airiel Kingery P-IF and Melanie Fuhrmann OF. Strong players, but return a boat load of talent that should make this season a good one.

[fbnut]

Burg lost a lot of 3-4 year starters that you don’t replace. They return 4 starters and will have a solid pitcher on the mound. They do have some very talented kids in the freshmen and sophomore classes

[ManitouDan2]

Saw Hagan Shaffer at SSU today working out .. obviously she graduated

[ColdHardTruth]

Yeah she's gone and the SS too they had. I think her name was Hoover?

[KSW]

Williamsburg is D3 this year as well.

[Gopher]

Williamsburg is D3 this year as well.

So they drop to D4 for 1 year, win a state championship, then move back up to D3 ?

[KSW]

Not sure how they played D4 at all, their enrollment is 145 girls w/o competitive balance added in.

[ManitouDan2]

SSU recruited their lefty ace pitcher/slugger , I think she signed or verballed somewhere else . She's a beast .

[KSW]

UK