Breckenridge hires Stamford's Cyndi Herrera as Lady Buckaroos' softball coach
BRECKENRIDGE — Breckenridge is bringing a leader with lots of winning experience to head its softball program.
The school announced Monday that the Lady Buckaroos will hire Stamford's Cyndi Herrera as head coach.
Herrera led Stamford to the Class 2A state title in 2021 and followed that with a state tournament appearance in 2022.
The coach spent four seasons as the Lady Bulldogs' head coach, starting in 2018. During that span, she compiled an 86-13 overall record.
The 2020 season was shortened due to COVID-19, but Stamford won district titles in all three of Herrera's other seasons. Their highest win total came in 2021, when Stamford went 32-5.
"It's sad when a chapter ends. But when one door closes, another one opens," Herrera said.
Herrera said she is thankful for her student-athletes and fellow coaches at Stamford during her tenure, as well as former athletic director Ronnie Casey, who hired her.
"I can't thank (Ronnie) enough," Herrera said. "There will never be enough for me to repay all of them."
During Herrera's time in Stamford, she made it a regular occurrence to face schools from higher classes. One of those was Breckenridge, which competes in Class 3A.
The Lady Bulldogs beat the Lady Buckaroos 7-2 in Stamford's 2022 season opener.
Breckenridge went 21-11 overall this past season and was 10-2 in district play. The Lady Buckaroos swept Bangs in the bi-district round of playoffs before falling to Merkel in the area round.
Herrera sees the Lady Buckaroos as a young, scrappy group that she can work with.
"There's definitely a lot of potential," Herrera said. "There's a lot of fight in girls. I feel like these girls want to compete, and I want to compete right next to them."
Breckenridge Athletic Director Casey Pearce coached at Stamford in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Herrera sees Pearce's leadership and prominence around the Big Country as a perk of the Breckenridge job.
"It takes one or two phone calls to know what he's about," Herrera said. "He's great and he's welcomed me with open arms."
Carson Field is the area sports reporter for the Abilene Reporter-News. He covers primarily Big Country high school sports. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to reporternews.com.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Breckenridge hires Stamford's Herrera as next softball coach
