Standard set: Calallen sets about the task of repeating as state softball champions
Hang out at a Calallen softball practice long enough and it’s easy to understand how the Wildcats broke through with a state championship in 2023.
The practices are crisp, there is little wasted effort and at times players help the coaching staff, led by head coach Teresa Lentz, with what is supposed to happen in a particular drill. It’s one of a number of reasons the Wildcats have ascended as one of the state’s best softball programs. Calallen broke through with its first state championship in 2023, but now more work is facing the squad in 2024 — repeating.
And for a team that returns all of its starting lineup, with a few more pieces added on, the motivation is there to earn another coveted title while continuing the building process for a program that has been on a ascent for the last half decade.
“It just makes us have a standard and we want to beat that standard every single day, and be better than what we were last year,” said senior Alaunah Almaraz.
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The standard has certainly been set for the program after winning Corpus Christi’s first state softball championship a season ago. As Almaraz said, though, it is maintaining the standard that is the motivation now for the Wildcats.
Lentz will sometimes give reminders to her group that there are those that still doubt the team and its accomplishments, knowing they can keep the team focused and entering each drill, practice and game with a chip on their shoulder.
“So, I’m constantly letting them know, people don’t think you’re good enough, people thought it was a fluke, people think this and think that,” Lentz said. “It’s reminding them of those things and helping them understand we’ve got to prove ourselves every time we go on the field, prove ourselves every day.”
From the first state tournament appearance in 2019 as a Class 5A school, to another one in 2021, a disappointing fourth-round loss in 2022 and to the state championship in 2023, the Wildcats have quickly moved up the hill as being one of the area’s top programs. Plus, the Wildcats have become a softball program, like the baseball program that plays a few feet away, one that is consistently in conversations about not only reaching the state tournament but competing for state championships.
“I think we feel like we are all more eager to get back there because we know how it feels to win,” said four-year player and infielder Megan Geyer. “Some of us also know how it feels to lose at state and we want to be back and get another ring.”
Beyond the number of returning starters (10), the confidence that is gained from winning a state championship, and consistency with the coaching staff, the Wildcats know winning another title will not be easy. The proverbial target is on their back, but that’s expected.
Now, this season is about taking that as a challenge to continue the Wildcats’ move up as a state softball power and maintaining a standard that was set in 2023.
“I feel like we have pressure, but I always feel like that it’s just regular every day,” Almaraz said. “We are going to have good days, we are going to have bad days. Whatever we do, we are going to come together and it’s going to push us to be better.”
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Calallen sets about the task of repeating as state softball champions
