A strong team requires a certain combination of ingredients: a strong bond between athletes and coaches, athletic ability and heart.

Lady Bison softball players feel they have these intangibles.

In addition to positive relationships, the players are strong at many positions and proficient at the plate.

“We all get along really well outside of games; we’re always laughing during practice, having fun and we’re strong defensively,” junior first basemen Lauren Miller said.

“One strength of our team is that we are all very skilled at several positions, so switching around when needed is very easy,” junior Captain Melanie Bernstein said.

The team made some improvements from last season to compliment their strengths.

“Last season, we  excelled at working well together and playing as one team rather than several separate players, so that was very helpful in forming relationships with the new players we received this year,” Bernstein said. “We have been working very hard on our defense during the off-season, and it has really improved.”

“We have better attitudes than last year, because this year we are all nicer to each other,” Miller continued, “Also, some of our improvements would be hitting.”

Due to the weather, the team spent much of the first part of the season in the batting cage.

“Sometimes we’re not as focused as we need to be, and we don’t have many back-up pitchers,” Miller said.

“One weakness is hitting off of slower pitchers. We focus a lot on how we hit the better and faster pitchers, so when it comes to a slow pitch, it kind of catches us off guard and messes us up,” Bernstein added.

The Lady Bison are led by head coach Mike Coreno, who coached the Lady Bison basketball team for the last few years and now coaches basketball at Hathaway Brown.

“Our team has a close relationship with our coaches, who push us to our best abilities and always give 110%,” Bernstein said.

The softball team begins their post-season at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11 at Gilmour.