Dreams shattered for Lady Lions seniors
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a continuing series of articles on how Garland County senior softball players are reacting to the mandatory “dead period” and cancellation of the season by the Arkansas Activities Association.
With a strong start to the season, Jessieville seniors Lilliana Fehrenbacher and Megan Archuleta envisioned a positive year for the Lady Lions softball team.
The Lady Lions picked up a pair of wins at home the first weekend of the season, defeating Dierks 14-13 and Joe T. Robinson 16-1 before dropping their conference opener on the road at Booneville and losing a tournament game against the higher classification Magnolia Lady Panthers. The following week, the Arkansas Activities Association instituted a “dead period” that has turned into a cancellation of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m proud of how we started the season. … If we look at the last couple years, we haven’t been doing very good, and we started this season really, really well,” Fehrenbacher said. “I feel like if we would’ve kept playing, then we could’ve had a really incredible season. … I just want to say thank you [to coach Tony Freeman] for coaching me and to my teammates [for] helping me and making me better.”
Archuleta said that she was disappointed and frustrated by the decision by the AAA.
“I’m pretty upset because it’s my last year, and I was really looking forward to it,” she said. “And with [our] team, I could really see us winning a lot and having fun.”
With plans to attend National Park
College next year, Archuleta hopes to also join the softball team and represent the Nighthawks on the field next spring.
Fehrenbacher, who was looking to go to basic training for the National Guard, is unsure what her next step will be.
“That might change because of all this,” she said. “We just don’t know yet.”
Fehrenbacher said that she misses the interaction with her teammates and friends due to the fact that schools are limited to remote instruction for the remainder of the academic year.
“Now we can’t see them because [of the] quarantine, so we’re just all stuck in the house,” she said. “I’m just not gonna see their faces for a long time and not gonna go to school with them anymore. … I was just starting to get close with all the underclassmen. I didn’t play softball last year; I played my sophomore year, and last year the other girls came up and played, and I didn’t play, so I didn’t really talk to them. … This year I was finally starting to get close with them and talk to them more, then the season got canceled.”