Home Sections Sports After long hiatus, Gav women's softball team sees playoff action

After long hiatus, Gav women's softball team sees playoff action

Written by Edgar Arce, Sports Editor

Monday, 19 May 2008

Talented players, great coaches and good connection in the field.  It all came together for the Gavilan softball team this season. The softball program is starting to grow up and this season showed just what the team is capable of doing.  It finished with the best record in school history, 34-18.    “We went far away on our season because of the great coaching staff,” player Nisa Ceballos  said. Sophomore outfielder Ceballos  has been playing for two years for the Rams. Ceballos was an important part of this team.    So much talent from the coaches and even more from the players helped this team qualify for the Nor Cal playoffs again.  Their last appearance was 24 years ago, in 1984.    This year, during the playoffs, the Rams lost in the first round against Merced College. The first game was won by the Rams 1-0, the second one by Merced 3-0 and they had to play one more to decide who will be moving up to the next round, it was won by Merced 13-2.    “The program is growing up and this season showed the improvement we are having throughout these past years,” head coach Nikki Dequin said.    Many players agree that since the arrival of Dequin and her coaching staff the team looks stronger.  They have built a continuation of players to keep this team aggressive and ready play any team. Nikki’s main priority is that the players want to represent their school, show respect for the sport and dignity on and off the field because they represent Gavilan College at all times.    The program tries to maintain a level of academics so the players are always eligible to participate on the team.  They accomplished this by creating study groups.  This season the team performed well both on the field and in the classrooms.    “We want our players to be role model for the kids and community,” Dequin said.      The program has also helped the community by having camps for kids who were interested in softball.  Camps brought  kids out to the field and showed them the rules and fundamentals of the sport.      Overall Dequin says she feels proud of the team’s accomplishments, but they still have a long way to go to achieve more. She wants to show that Gavilan has a good softball program where players can be successful and get recruited by universities.     “Girls want to come up and help out with the team,” outfielder Ceballos said. Ever since the team started winning more games, this brought  interest from more people around the area and more fans started watching the games. Now that the team achieved the best record in school history, the program is expecting to have more athletes interested in playing for Gavilan. Not only players around the closest cities such as Hollister, Morgan Hill or Watsonville, but also women from Los Banos such as Kristina Vazques who was an important key to this team. The Rams not only achieved a great record and returned to the Nor-Cal playoffs, but also they achieved all-conference honorable mention for six team players, out of 13 in the entire team.   First team were Julie Broyer (INF), Danielle Fernandez (P), Alicia Reese (C), Audra Brown (1B), and DanielleScibula(OF).  Second team was Mikhaela Osuna (OF) and Amanda Rosevear (UTL).  The Gavilan softball team has left really important footprints during this season, and all teams should take precautions for the next season because these women are coming hard and ready to play every game with intensity to put the Rams back on the map.

 

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