Cyclone Softball Making Strides at Midway Point of Season

Cyclone Softball Making Strides at Midway Point of Season –

(6-19-26) – Goals are being attained, but they’re not satisfied.

That’s the overall feeling for the Harlan Community softball team. Sitting at 8-8 on the year, Coach Nolan Heese likes the strides his team has made, but also knows there are things that need to happen to become an elite program.

“In the grand scheme of things obviously we got to be really happy that we already have eight wins at this point considering where we've been. Last season, we only had seven wins total, so obviously we've already passed that by the halfway point. So that's obviously great to see. However, I mean, we're setting expectations for ourselves. We want to take that step as a program.”

After a 1-3 week against top-tier teams that included St. Albert and Lewis Central, Heese knows facing quality opponents will eventually help make them a better team.

“We want to play good teams,” said Heese. “Once postseason comes around, I mean, that's what helps prepare you for it. Facing a bad team and winning by 10 or 20 runs, that's not really going to do a lot for you, but this week we saw some really good pitchers.

One thing Heese liked seeing in his team’s loss to Lewis Central was their outfield play.

“Our outfield looked really, really good last night. So their improvement was good to see. Our defense looks pretty good.”

Heese wants his team to learn from each other, especially at the plate.

“A big part that we talked about last night with the whole team was learning from other people’s bats. How are how are the pitchers attacking you? Are they sequencing pitches in certain ways? So being prepared for what you might see on that certain pitch rather than just going up there and guessing.”

Cyclone softball will begin their next stretch with a doubleheader against Shenandoah on Monday.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats