Middle of the road, not an option for first-year coach
| Saturday, Jun 27 2009 10:57 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jun 27 2009 11:17 PM
Loading Stories
Advertisement
Images:
Casey Christie / The Californian Amanda Hockett, Stockdale High all area softball coach.
This was Amanda Hockett's first year as head softball coach at Stockdale, but she played it like a wily veteran.
There was the disrespect card Hockett used when the Mustangs were picked to finish in the middle of the SWYL and were ranked below teams they had beaten all year. They won the SWYL and made it to the section championship.
There was the strategy, like Hockett holding out ace Justine Vela from the team's tournament game against Centennial so that Vela would be an unknown to the Golden Hawks during league play. Vela beat them twice.
There was the in-game coaching, the encouragement and aggressiveness that helped Stockdale scratch out runs to support Vela. Hockett even nearly won her team the section title when she noticed that a Clovis-Buchanan catcher dropped the third strike in the seventh inning and went to celebrate, giving Stockdale three runs before Buchanan recovered.
All of that adds up to a Californian Coach of the Year honor for Hockett in her first year.
"Would I have ever expected us to get where we went at the beginning of the year?" Hockett said. "No way, not even at the middle of the season. But we turned a corner."
Also considered: Cathy Balint-Karr, Golden Valley; Candice Swan, Frontier
