There's an old adage in sports: It's harder to stay on top than it is to get there.
Three northwest Georgia softball teams are on their way to proving that wrong.
Gordon Lee, Heritage and Ringgold entered the 2021 season having won 11 combined state titles over the past six years, with the Lady Trojans on a six-year run of championships that includes the past five in Class A public. Heritage won the past three Class AAAA titles, and fellow Catoosa County program Ringgold has won back-to-back Class AAA championships.
Even though each program lost significant contributors - 12 players from those teams signed college scholarships - the expectations haven't changed.
"We lost six seniors, but there's always talent and they have the mentality of it's a new chapter and next man up," said Heritage coach Megan Crawford, a former assistant who took over when Tanner Moore stepped down after last season. "Our expectations don't change. The target is always on your back when you've won three state championships in a row. We can't worry about the things we can't control, just accept every day as a new challenge."
Crawford's team, off to a 2-0 start, returns Times Free Press Best of Preps selections Riley KoKinda and Zoe Wright, as well as catcher Madeline Stone. However, for the first time in four years, Rachel Gibson won't be an option in the circle; she's now a freshman pitcher at Clemson. Kelsey Anderson, Brinley Horner and freshmen Addie Edwards and Zoe Hendricks are competing to become Heritage's next ace.
"I don't have a set rotation," said Crawford, who has 12 freshmen on the roster. "It's whoever is working best for us and what the situation is will determine who pitches. Every day is a competition here. We still have a lot of experience with underclassmen who played a lot last year, but we have a lot of youth.
"The freshmen have accepted the challenge, and there don't seem to be any nerves. I don't care how old you are, if you show me what you have, it's all right and you will play."
Staff file photo / Having Emma Langston in the pitching circle again this year is a big plus for Gordon Lee's softball program as the Lady Trojans seek their 12th state title overall after winning six in a row, including the past five in GHSA Class A public.No one knows more about extended success than Dana Mull, whose Gordon Lee program has won a GHSA-record 11 state titles. On paper, making it 12 would appear to be one of the toughest tasks for the veteran coach after eight starters graduated, but the Lady Trojans started 5-0 despite having as many as five freshmen in the starting lineup.
"We're just really, really young but very talented," Mull said. "As quickly as we can figure things out with the young ones, the better we'll be. I don't know if I have ever started five freshmen at once, but I have twice this year, and the thing is, when you put one or two freshmen on the field you know at some point it's going to show, but if you put five it can get interesting."
One luxury for the Chickamauga program is the presence of pitcher Emma Langston, who shared those duties with Emma Minghini the past three seasons, and her battery mate, Allie Farrow. Langston, a University of Georgia recruit, was 15-0 with a 1.12 ERA while also batting .400 last season, when Farrow hit .495 and drove in 44 runs.
Another title run, though, will depend on the next wave of Lady Trojans, a group of seven freshmen Mull said have the talent to get it done: McCartney Angle, Kate Chambers, Kylee Fryar, Gracie Helton, Ella Grace Hixon, Lillian McCullough and Tenslee Wilson.
"The freshmen are athletic," Mull said. "We are a faster team than we've been in a while because of them. They are so well rounded. Honestly, we could just play the freshmen and have a good team."
Staff photo / Heritage's Riley Kokinda, right, signals safe as Eastside's Kelsey Ellis is late with her tag during a state playoff game last October in Ringgold, Ga. Heritage has won the GHSA Class AAAA state title the past three years.Ringgold won't have to rely on as many freshmen as Gordon Lee and Heritage, but the Lady Tigers lost five starters. However, coach Daniel Hackett does return a strong group with Baileigh Pitts - a Best of Preps pick as a utility player after hitting .408 with six homers and 32 RBIs in 2020 - catcher Ava Raby, first baseman Addi Broome, outfielder Autumn Green, pitcher Taylor Layne, Maddy Bacon and super sophomore Zoey DeFoor.
"We lost five good ones, but we also kept a good core of our lineup," Hackett said. "One issue we've had is several of our pitchers didn't pitch over the summer, so it may take some time to get them rounded into form."
Each of the three programs has benefited from consistent success as younger girls enter already knowing what's expected of them and the older players become leaders to them. To the three coaches, those are major reasons the success is expected to continue.
"We have younger girls competing to beat out older girls every year," Hackett said. "They come in with a fire to actually want to play instead of sitting and watching a championship team. They see how hard it is immediately because of the quality of players here."
Said Mull: "When you're winning consistently, the younger girls know the expectations going in, and it's the senior's jobs to guide them in that direction. Each senior group wants to keep that tradition going, and they don't want to be the group that breaks that cycle."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.