Softball Team(New coaches)

February 23, 2009
Filed under Sports

The Lufkin Varsity and Junior Varsity teams have new coaches for 2008-2009. The new varsity coach is Heather Slaton. She has three years of experience as the JV coach and Varsity assistant at Lufkin. She feels very lucky and fortunate now to be able to say that she is a varsity coach at a 5A school and that her dream has finally come true.

“I always wanted to coach at the varsity level and I feel very fortunate to be at a 5A high school starting my head coaching career,” Slaton said. “Softball has also been a passion of mine since I was young and now I feel very lucky to be able to go to work everyday enjoying what I do.”

Since Slaton is the new varsity coach, she still plans to use some of the previous coaches style and techniques, but she also plans to bring new ideas to the team as well.

“Coach Forrest and I are good friends and she is a great resource for us,” Slaton said. “But there will be some new hitting principles and tools that my assistant and I will bring to the program, as well as new defensive strategies.”

Since last years district record was not so good for the Lufkin Lady Pack, Slaton plans to have a tough pre-district to prepare her team for the competitive teams they will face this year.

“We have really tried to beef up our pre-district schedule so that we can be successful in our competitive district,” Slaton said. “Therefore, it is highly likely we won’t win every single game before district, but we will compete, and learn to fight for wins.”

Slaton plans to bring her team together as a family so they can be competitive on the field and be able to communicate with one another.

“We will be doing team bonding activities, we will also be attending a clinic/camp in December that our booster club and fundraisers have paid for,” Slaton said. “Also we will learn to adjust in games to what the other team is doing, and to exploit the other teams weaknesses.”

The new coaches this year plan to focus mainly on offense this year to get wins on their record. Jessica Tullos, the JV coach, graduated from SFA last year and played softball there, which she lettered all four years. Her specialty is hitting so she plans to bring all she knows to the table.

“My hitting coach taught all over the world for teams like Oklahoma Sooners Softball, Chicago White Sox, etc,” Tullos said. “I also set three records while I was at SFA. Season home run record, career home run record, and career walk record.

Slaton is very confident that Tullos will bring a lot of new ideas to the team, as well as a successful season. Tullos has already set many records in her career at SFA, so Slaton will be looking forward to having her expertise.

“Already she and I have talked and she brings a lot to the table as far as conditioning workouts,” Slaton said. “Her specialty is offense so she will be focusing much of her time with the girls batting.”

Not only does Tullos plan to help varsity with victories this year, but she also plans to help out her JV team as well.

“I plan on helping with the hitting a lot so if I can get their bats going, that will put some runs on the board which should lead to victories,” Tullos said.

Tullos is very proud and blessed to be the new JV coach and she is very excited to work with the girls who she has been getting to know in the first nine weeks.

“I didn’t know that this opportunity for me would come so soon. I’m truly blessed and so excited for the season,” Tullos said. “They are all great girls and I’m excited to work with them.”