Eagles starting anew after large senior losses

For two consecutive years, a Menominee Indian softball player has earned Player of the Year honors in the Central Wisconsin Conference-10.

Now, after losing pitcher Kelsey Corn, last season’s honoree, along with Ania Smith and Taylor Mahkimetas, new head coach Roberta Ponfil has key positions to fill.

What she wants to do in the preseason remains pretty simple.

“Get them better at what they need to get better at, use their strengths and confident that maybe they can get as far as they did last year,” Ponfil said. “Just kind of build them up.”

With Corn, the workhorse in the circle last year for the Eagles, gone, Jalen Corn, an honorable-mention all-conference selection a season ago, will have to spend more time at catcher to help the new pitchers be successful.

Corn caught just over half of the contests last season, splitting time with Smith.

“I need to improve on a lot of things as a catcher, so I’m hoping these girls will work with me and we’ll all learn together,” Corn said.

Autumn Chevalier, Kendra Webster and Faith Munson will also be asked to take on larger roles this season, as could second baseman Liz Corn, a second-team all-conference selection in 2016.

“We need to work as one, so I would like to see everybody work together and come together as a team this year,” Jalen Corn said.

Ponfil, who previously helped coach at Freedom High School, is using the early practices to get to know the girls, finding how to utilize the team’s strengths. So far, some girls have impressed her with their fielding while others have done well in the batting cage.

Ponfil said there were multiple girls who stood out in the first week of practice who could be ready to pick up the slack. She’s attempting to have more players make small improvements instead of relying on one to make a big jump.

“We lost three good players last year,” Ponfil said. “So try to get them going and get some of the seniors or some of the juniors step up to be as good as they were.”