Lady Eagles softball preparing to take flight

The most popular girls’ sports in the north Georgia area is finally coming to Oakwood Christian Academy.

The Lady Eagles will be fielding both a high school and middle school fastpitch softball team this spring. OCA, a non-GHSA school, will face more-established teams from Tennessee in its first year, as Tennessee plays its softball in the spring.

Former LaFayette High School player Samara Garrison, who also coaches soccer at OCA, will be leading the Navy-and-Gold in their inaugural season, while Ashleigh Givens will serve as Garrison’s assistant.

“This is my third year teaching here and I’ve been asking every year about when we were going to start a softball team,” Garrison recalled. “The answer was always that we didn’t have enough players, because most of the girls we have were involved with other sports. But we did another poll this (school) year and with me pulling a few kids up from the middle school, we’ve got enough to field a team, so I’m pretty excited about finally being able to start a team here at OCA.”

Garrison said the two rosters have about a 5050 mix of girls who have past softball experience and those who are trying the sport for the first time.

“About half of our girls, high school and middle school combined, have played for several years,” she said. “The other half haven’t played softball before, but we do have a bunch of athletic girls and most of them have played some other sport.”

Some of that experience comes in the form of seniors Tori Hall and Kaylee McSpadden.

Hall is the veteran of the bunch, having played at all levels of softball, including select, for the past 12 years. She will pitch and see some time behind the plate.

“I’m going to be leaning on her heavily this first year to lead the team,” Garrison said. “Tori is like another assistant coach out there because it has been a while since Ashleigh and I have played, so sometimes we have to ask Tori about certain rules that may have changed since we last played.”

McSpadden, who has played both volleyball and basketball at Oakwood, hasn’t played softball in recent years, but is a solid athlete and will be counted on to start in the outfield.

Second baseman Ashley Keith, who brings lot of experience to the table, anchors the junior class. The rest of the juniors are in their first year of softball, but bring both potential and enthusiasm to the squad. Emily Green and Lindsay Phillips will both play in the outfield, while Madi Phillips has been penciled in as the starter in left field.

Among the sophomores, recent Oakwood transfer Natalei Raines has previous select ball experience during the time she lived in Colorado. She will pitch, catch and play some shortstop, while Mary Catherine Ownby, a volleyball and

basketball standout, will play centerfield in her first year on the diamond.

Freshman Lexie Asher has played travel ball in the past and will man third base, while first-year player Alexis Davidson will round out the class.

The rest of the high school roster is filled out by a quartet of middle school players, all of whom have all played recreation and/ or travel ball. Lily Green will catch for both the high school and middle school teams. Chloe Taylor will play first base and pitch for the middle school team, while McKenely Baggett and Raleigh Suits will split time at third base and at shortstop.

In addition to those four, the middle school roster will be rounded out by eighth graders Callie Ray, Skylar Martin and Scottie Duffey, seventh graders Abi Whitlock and Avery Green and sixth graders Alex Haynes and Caroline Tindell.

“We want to help the girls develop solid skills and, hopefully, we can at least be competitive in this first year,” Garrison said.

She added that the key would be developing a good defense.

“We’re hoping to have a really strong defense because, in softball, if you don’t have a good defense, you’re in trouble,” she added. “We’ve got some that are good hitters with quick bats and lots of power and we’ve also got some fast runners so we’ll have good speed on the bases too. The big thing is that all the girls are athleticallyinclined so it doesn’t take me a lot of time to show them something before it clicks.

“Plus a lot of these girls have played together here before in several sports, so there is a lot of camaraderie already built up. It’s a great group of girls and you can tell they generally care about each other. We just have keep our heads up and remember this is our first year, but hopefully we will get better each game and learn from any mistakes that we make.”