Teachable moments
Coach Shawn Bell finds lessons in a variety of places, and it’s paid off for Weaver softball
HARTFORD — The Weaver softball team has homework. Softball homework. Go home and watch this or that college game, coach Shawn Bell will tell them. He wants to hear about it the next day.
“They watched a game the other day – I said, ‘You saw that pitcher? She threw nine walks. Imagine what she’s feeling inside. You see that on her face? No, you don’t. What did the catcher just do? She called time, she brought everybody in, calmed her down.’
“They gotta watch it because their (softball) IQ has to get up. ‘Go home and watch it. I want to know what game you watched.’ I’ll say, ‘Listen to the commentators.’
“Because we’re way behind.
These girls are learning how to play softball in high school.”
Weaver goes on field trips. The Beavers go to watch Southington softball; coach Davina Hernandez was a volunteer assistant at Weaver for her first two years of coaching before heading to Southington.
Why, the players will ask. Watch, Bell tells them, this is how you play the game.
It’s paying off. Bell took over in 2012 when Weaver had lost 120 games in a row over six years. He started off slow — the Beavers won one game in his first three seasons – but they were also playing in the CCC at the time against suburban teams whose players had grown up playing the sport from a young age.
In 2018, they qualified for their first state tournament berth in 26 years.
Now they are in the Capitol Region Athletic League (CRAL) and they are competitive. This season Weaver won 14 games, its most in program history, and will
host its first state tournament game ever Tuesday against Sacred Heart, in the first round of Class M.
“The program is growing,” Bell said. “We know softball now. We’re not just running around the bases clueless. We know when to bunt, when to double steal, little situational stuff.
“It’s picked up to where we’re not the also-rans we were in the past. We’re competitive.”
Weaver’s top pitcher Alexis Williams, who is 14-3 with 111 strikeouts in 98 innings, just started pitching last year as a sophomore.
“I started because I wanted a different challenge for myself,” said Williams, who also plays volleyball. “Playing volleyball was almost like a regular thing for me but having another sport would give me more looks for college, so I thought why not. Then I found out the only pitcher who liked pitching slowly didn’t like pitching so I told (Bell) I would become the next best (pitcher) and now we’re here.
“Last year it was working to get better. This year it’s working to be calm. The old pitcher told me how to pitch, or how to stay focused. I would think about how she walked me through my motions, then I pitch. For me, the mental part was the hardest.”
There are seven seniors and they run the show, starting with the stretching at practice and keeping everybody in line.
“If I’m coming out, they’re stretching, the seniors are leading,” Bell said. “Any girls who are mouthy, they tell them, ‘We don’t do that here.’ The seniors come over and address them as a committee and it nips it in the bud.”
In that way, the team has grown closer.
“I think we’re doing well because we really work together,” said senior Allicea Chase, a volleyball
player and cheerleader who started playing last year and now plays DH and outfield. “It’s almost a family.”
Junior first baseman Justice Evans is batting .420 to lead the team, while senior shortstop Ashyra Greenwood is batting .390 with four home runs and 49 runs scored and has three walkoff game-winners this season.
Senior Taylor Wilson, who is going to USC this fall, started playing as a sophomore, just to get out of the house after school. She realizes that Tuesday’s game will be tough, considering Sacred Heart plays in the more competitive SCC.
“It is difficult when we get to the state tournament and we’re behind,” she said. “A lot of (our) girls are coming in and playing for the first time as juniors or seniors. These other girls have been playing since T-ball.
“We feel behind but we know we can make it up with our grit and hard work. We’re ready to compete.”