East Knox High School Softball Coach Jake Ulrey brings a philosophy to his work that reinforces the idea of living in the present and doing the best you can do all the time.
“Win a little every day” is one of the slogans he tosses out regularly.
“This is used to remind us that every day is important,” coach Ulrey said. “You have to have focus and the right mentality everyday to get better. Having real success isn't something you just go out and do. You work at it every day.”
Every day this season, the Lady Bulldogs are looking to build on last year’s 13-10 overall and 6-6 in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference (KMAC) record. They’ll get their first chance to do that March 23, when they open with a 5:15 p.m. game at Clear Fork. KMAC play starts April 3, when they travel to Fredericktown.
Conference play is important, and Ulrey sees it as a big challenge.
“Five teams in the KMAC played in the district championship last year,” he said. “Four of them won the district championship. KMAC softball across the board is tough.”
That said, goal No. 1 is to win the KMAC, an aim shared by other teams that are seen as preseason predicted winners.
With the parity across the KMAC, Ulrey said any team that wins has to abide by his “don’t beat yourself” philosophy.
“If you can limit your mistakes and don’t beat yourself, you’ll find yourself in a lot of the games and more times than not, a chance to win it at the end,” the coach said.
As an extension of that, he focuses on the fundamentals in an effort to minimize mistakes, an approach that he learned from his high school coach.
Ulrey grew up playing baseball from the time he was able to hit one off the tee. He played collegiately at Tiffin University and started coached soon after graduation.
As a high school coach, one objective is to give those with the talent and work ethic a chance to play at college.
“I have coached girls that went to college to play softball,” he said. “There is no doubt that several girls on this team are good enough to play at that level."
A strong corps of seniors – Maddie Cotsamire, Natalie Smith, Shanda Melick, Hannah McCoy, Kayla Finch and Grace Sheasby – will lead the team, but they have to stay healthy as lack of depth is a weakness, Ulrey said.
Melick and Smith were first-team KMAC choices las year, and Cotsamire earned second-team honors.
Offensively, Smith led the conference with a .600 batting average and a slugging percentage of 1.067. Melick was 10th in slugging, at .718. They are both capable of swinging for the fence, with seven and three home runs, respectively. If people are on base ahead of her, Smith is an RBI-producer, knocking in 39 last year.
Cotsamire was third in the league among pitchers, posting 11 wins last year, and striking out 80 to rank fourth in the KMAC.
The team is coming off its first district win, and Ulrey said it will be exciting to see if they can repeat that this year.
“It is a long hard journey to get there, but if you win a little every day then you can put success in perspective and work at accomplishing it,” Ulrey said.
