DIAMOND DAZE: Copan softball works hard in early practice

A year ago, Copan High School softball coach Randy Davis performed some magical athletic alchemy — transforming a softball team with precious little experience into some golden success by the end of the season.

After beginning the regular season at 6-9, the Lady Hornets hammered out four-straight wins — by a combined run total of 42-17 — on their way to a 10-9 regular season mark and a conference championship.

Even though they fell in two in the district championships to Shidler (19-10, regional finalist), Davis had practically spun a miracle considering the collective rawness of his team at the start.

This season boasts a much more promising preseason practice.

Most the girls are back with a full season of experience under their belt, as well as the natural physical progress that comes from the growing process.

The Lady Hornets are still very young — both his main pitchers are sophomores-to-be, Kam Van and Elyzabeth Odum. Van came on strong during last season and probably deserves the No. 1 designation at this point of the first week of practice, Davis said.

“They both worked at it (pitching) quite a bit this year,” he added. “They’ve improved over last year definitely.”

Faith Weatherspoon handled the bulk of catching duties last year but might play a substantial around the horn role this fall.

“She’s a very good shortstop,” Davis said. “She’s a very good all-around athlete. She’ll also probably help us a little bit with pitching.”

All things considered, Davis is content with his number (14) of girls out for the team.

“That’s not a bad deal,” he said. “Some of the girls are coming out because their friend played. Everybody we expected to be out is out there.”

Practice took on a different tenor this past week due to the blazing sun.

“We’ve been inside the gym every practice,” Davis said. “It’s not a bad thing at the beginning of the year because indoors you can really work on a lot of the little stuff. … We’ve had great practices. Unlike last year, we’re not really starting from square one. A lot of what we’re doing is reviewing and fine-tuning the stuff they did last year. … So far things are going pretty well.”

Conference teams will fill the bulk of this year’s schedule, Davis added.

This season marks the 25th Anniversary of the 1997 Copan state championship season presided over by Davis.

The Lady Hornets captured three-straight state titles (1997-99).

Davis has fielded some great teams since, but the program has largely wavered, especially Davis stepped away in the early 2010s.

Copan softball went away for a few years in the middle stretch of the 2010s, but was reinstituted a few years ago.

Multiple coaches had led the team until Davis returned to the helm prior to the 2021 campaign.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Optimism growing for more progress for Copan High softball