CROTHERSVILLE— The Crothersville softball program has been searching for a new coach over the past few months. They announced that they hired Head Coach Bryant Hughes and Assistant Whitney Douglas for the 2023-24 season.

Last year was the first season for Crothersville since 2018, looking to continue building this upcoming softball program. Both coaches were asked about what made them intrigued to be a part of the Crothersville softball team.

“I wanted to build a program,” Hughes said. “I’ve been involved in the sport for a while and my daughters have always played softball.”

Hughes prior coaching experience is from recreational leagues but has been involved for a long time with the sport.

“I’ve coached in some rec leagues for the last ten years,” he said. “I played fifteen years of fastpitch softball.”

Assistant Coach Douglas is already an assistant coach for the girls’ basketball team at Crothersville. She said that it ‘just made sense’ for her to join the softball coaching staff.

“I’ve already been the assistant coach for the girls’ basketball team,” Douglas said. “I am also a teacher here now, so I figured I would try it out. They were hiring an assistant softball coach, so I applied for it,” she said.

Douglas has prior experience as a pitching coach, but it was many years ago, according to the coach. Crothersville currently has 13 players at this moment.

Hughes and Douglas are hoping that the team can have at least 12-13 girls for a complete group. Both coaches were asked about their first impressions of the team.

“They’re here to compete and get better, they try and give their best efforts in practice,” Hughes said. “That’s all I can ask.”

These girls want to play, they are out recruiting classmates to form this team,” Douglas said. “They were in my classroom on Thursday trying to find enough players.”

The team began practice on March 4th. Hughes was asked about what he wants to implement as the new Tigers coach.

“Teaching fundamentals will be key,” he said. “Some of these girls haven’t played softball before this season,” he said.

The Tigers ended their season with a 0-13 record. According to MaxPreps, the Tigers have not won a game since 2014 when they put up 22 runs on Austin, defeating the Eagles 22-8 on May 24th of that year.

Crothersville opens their season in the Sue Siekman Classic at Southwestern (Hanover) on Saturday, Apr. 6th at 10 a.m. The Tigers then travel to Lanesville on Apr. 10th at 5:30 p.m.

Then travel to Southwestern (Shelby) on Apr. 15th at the same time. The opening road trip ends on Apr. 17th at Borden, starting at 5 p.m.

The first home game for Crothersville will be on April 19th against the Christian Academy of Indiana at 7 p.m. Their cross-county matchup with Trinity Lutheran takes place on April 25th at 5 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran High School.