The Lady Rams softball team is preparing to kick off this year’s season. Head Coach Neil Dittmer has been coaching for 13 years at PHS and is preparing his team.
Dittmer played baseball as a kid, and his Dad and Grandpa were his coaches.
“I have always dreamed of coaching a spring sport, like baseball or softball,” said Dittmer.
Dittmer started his coaching career by being asked in 2011 by then-head softball coach Joe Asbury to coach JV for him. Dittmer has had a lot of triumphant moments in the past. One of his most significant accomplishments was leading the Lady Rams to Sectional and Regional Championships in 2019.
Dittmer has seen a lot of leadership in the past, but this year, there is an excellent group of seniors for leadership. These seniors are Nadia Garcia, Savannah Key, and Lily Hall. Dittmer says there has been a lot of growth in the past years but claims they have to have a lot of growth.
“We need girls to step into some bigger roles with our younger team, and be able to excel at those roles, with something a little bit new. You just need to focus on the little things to improve this season,” said Dittmer.
The routine for the Lady Rams on any typical day is one the team knows well.
“We will usually have a little warmup before going to, whether it’s a home or away game. So after we do our warmup, we will take our pre-game and then, just go and, jump into the game,” said Dittmer.
It takes a lot of time to prepare for games and to work on offense and defense.
“We will have practice after school, and during the beginning of the season we’ll do a day where we have a defensive focus day and then an offensive focus day, and a scrimmage day,” said Dittmer.
Dittmer plans to build up the school softball program in the future.
“I hope to build our program, into a consistent competitor in the conference, as well as a consistent competitor for, sectional championships and beyond,” said Dittmer.
A couple of upcoming freshmen need to know what to expect from softball.
“It takes a lot of work, and it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be willing to put in extra time and extra effort, outside of practice. You know, there’s only a certain amount of time that you get to practice, and if you want to get better, you have to put in a little extra time, and you have to be willing to go the extra mile, to be better,” said Dittmer.
The Lady Rams will start official practice on March 4, right after school, to kick off this year’s season.
