The East Knox softball team is coming off a tough season in which the Bulldogs went 8-14 overall and 5-9 in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference (KMAC), and coach Jake Ulrey hopes that his team can turn things around this spring through mental discipline and hard work.
Ulrey brings a coaching philosophy based around discipline and mental toughness, saying that he tries to model his coaching strategy off of his high school coach, who had success with the approach. This takes plenty of teaching and hard learning to succeed.
“Our goal for this year is to be better mentally,” Ulrey said. “Mental mistakes had a huge impact on our season last year.”
This year’s East Knox squad faces the challenge of filling the void left by the seniors who graduated last year. This spring, Ulrey said, the team is counting on two seniors to lead the team, which is otherwise staffed by juniors, except for one sophomore and one freshman.
Ulrey, who played baseball in high school and college and is in his first year as a varsity coach after seven seasons as an assistant, said that his team has solid talent with some girls who are capable of playing in college. He said this comes down to how bad they want it and how fine-tuned their skills are mentally and physically.
“We will need strong pitching from our three junior pitchers,” Ulrey said. “We need to field a tough defense behind the pitching and as a team, our bats need to improve from a year ago.”
The Bulldogs play by the motto of “win a little every day,” which Ulrey said helps the team through the tough times. He said it is a motivator for his players to let them know that they have the skill to succeed, but that success doesn’t happen overnight.
“It takes hard work every day to get to the top,” Ulrey said. “I’m excited for the opportunity to coach this year’s team. We have some pretty talented athletes, and it will be fun trying to get the most out of them and seeing how far we can go as a team.”
Ulrey said, “I want to bring a district championship home.”
East Knox starts off the season at home against Centerburg on April 1 at 5:15 p.m.
