Scott Swanson
When Shane Cochran started the local American Softball Association tournament team program 15 years ago, with one 12-and-under team, he had one goal in mind: to develop local softball talent.
This year the summer program included three local teams, 14U, 12U and 10U, with some new coaches in the dugouts.
“It’s just progressed from (that original 12U team) to where we just keep getting more and more girls every year,” said Cochran, who is president of this year’s local ASA program.
ASA is holding try-outs for fall softball for 12U and 14U players Tuesday, Aug. 6. Karyn Hartsook will coach the 12U team and Michael Zanona will coach 14U. Time and location are still up in the air, due to Oregon Jamboree clean-up, so interested players or parents should contact Cochran at (541) 409-1337.
ASA softball focuses on tournaments – local, then regional, all the way up to national. Cochran and high school Coach Gary Barr said it is a critical element in the development of quality softball players.
“A high school coach only has kids for about two months,” said Barr, who runs a hitting academy in Salem and has coached ASA ball for 18 years. “Summer ball, fall ball and all the practices are critical for developing a good high school program. Without a good summer and fall ball program, a high school program will never get off the ground.”
Typically, a high school team will play about 25 games during the prep season. Barr recommends that girls who are serious about softball play between 70 and 90 games a year outside of high school – at least 50 in the summer and 20 in the fall.
“When I coached summer ball, we took five weeks off, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. The rest of the year we were practicing or playing,” he said.
Not only that, but those teams played at the “A” level, which is the second-highest, skill-wise, in ASA, behind “Gold.”
Sweet Home teams played at the “B” level this summer, but Cochran’s 2012 summer team took third in the state at the “A” level.
His own daughter Ashley came up through his ASA program, played four years at Sweet Home High School and then a year at Mt. Hood Community College before getting married. His younger daugher, McKenzie, was a freshman on this year’s varsity team.
Barr said two of his high school players played consistently at the “A” level – outfielder Katie Virtue and pitcher McKenzie Marchbanks. Virtue was selected First Team All-State and All-League and finished second in league MVP voting, before being selected All-State as well, while Marchbanks was Second Team All-League on the mound after leading the Huskies to a 17-9 record and the first round of the state playoffs.
Barr said teams like this year’s state champion Banks are consistently among the best because they focus on softball. He likened the approach to Sweet Home’s wrestling program.
“It’s not top-notch because those kids wrestle two or three months out of the year and then go do something else,” Barr said. “In my opinion, if Sweet Home softball wants to get to the heights that wrestling has gone to, we need as many girls as possible to dedicate themselves to programs in which they play and practice year-round.
“In no way do I think that we will have 12 girls who play ASA summer ball at a 4A school. You might come close to that at a bigger school, like South Salem. But you have to have more than two if we’re going to push Sweet Home softball to the semifinals or win it.”
Both Cochrane and Barr said progress is being made in Sweet Home.
“I think (the program’s) doing a good job as far as developing softball players that know the game and can compete at a high level,” Cochrane said. “I think it teaches them the skills they need, the competitiveness they need.
“I think the biggest benefit I see is at the varsity level. You see the difference between girls playing ASA versus girls that don’t play. They’re more competitive, they know the game better.”
Barr said players need to play at higher levels of competition to get the kind of experience they need for the upper levels of the state playoffs. Cochran said Sweet Home has won “several big tournaments over the years.”
“We’ve qualified for nationals a few times, although we’ve never gone.”
Barr said Sweet Home players need to go, if they want to raise the level of their game.
At the 10U level, coached by Travis Miner, for example, the team ended with a 28-5-1 record, scoring 307 runs while giving up only 126 runs.
“Those are the big tournaments of the year,” he said. You get a lot out of those tournaments. Those are scenarios that we can improve on.”
What it will take is commitment, he said – not only from players and coaches, but from parents. He said it doesn’t mean girls can’t play other sports.
“I’ve had some kids who did secondary sports for fun, which I encouraged, but their primary focus was softball,” he said. “That made a difference.”
He said he has “high hopes” that the summer and fall programs in Sweet Home will “continue to improve.”
“A team like Banks, which is first or second every year, that’s the kind of commitment in their 4A school. That’s what it’s going to take. We have to follow in their footsteps if we want to win a state championship in Sweet Home. We need more commitment at a higher level.”