The Portal Panther softball staff misplaced eight of their 9 starters from a 12 months in the past and have struggled a bit out of the gates. Among the important thing losses was beginning pitcher and this season freshman Emma Johnson has taken over on the mound. While she’s had her ups and downs head coach Travis Motes feels she has put within the work to get higher and is assured she’s going to proceed to enhance. 

“I am very proud of Emma,” Motes mentioned. “She has an extremely good work ethic. She is a very determined young lady. She is becoming a leader for this team. We have kind of put her in the spotlight this year as our starting pitcher and I could not be prouder of what she is doing for her team.” 

“I feel like my role on the team is to lead and show good sportsmanship to my teammates. I know we have a lot of young girls, but we have to work as a team and have fun with what we are doing.  

In my opinion I think things are coming together slowly. I really wish we had the same motivation as we had last year. I just feel like we had that mindset to go so far last year and I am working to try to build our team up and have positive mindsets that lead to success.”