COVINGTON, Ga. – It is no secret that the Alcovy softball program has gone through several drastic changes in the last few years. 

A once dominant program on the diamond, the Lady Tigers have suffered their fair share of setbacks in recent years.

Last season, head coach Kelli Wesley was tasked with changing the program’s fortunes, and while Alcovy’s season ended with only four wins, the team appeared as if it was starting to build the necessary chemistry to be successful.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances that saw Wesley decide to step away, assistant coach Miranda Lamb has now taken the reins, and will look to continue what Wesley started.

As a former player and someone who is already familiar with the team and the school’s landscape, Lamb feels she knows exactly what it takes to change the culture of Lady Tigers softball.

“I hope that we become a winning program again,” she said. “We have the talent this year to do that, so hopefully we can be successful in that. We also need to get girls who come to Alcovy wanting to come tryout for softball.”

While the number of athletes trying out are down at least for the year, Lamb knows the talent she already has on the roster can help change that.

“I have four awesome seniors this year,” she said. “Corley Thacker, Lanie Knight, Abby Trantham and Courtney Freeman know their expectations for this year. We already talked about being leaders, not only at the varsity level, but to those JV girls this year to show them how to help their teammates and be a positive light on and off the field.”

With only four seniors entering their final season, the team is young, which means Lamb will be depending on several underclassmen to be difference makers.

Specifically, she noted juniors Gwen Lee and McKenzie Rodgers, sophomores Kelana Gibson and Amaya Evans and freshman Lexi McDonald as players who could be impact players over the next few years.

Armed with the familiarity of the game and an abundance of youthful, talented players, Lamb believes she has the necessary components to get her squad back to the state playoffs.

“That’s something I haven’t had the opportunity to experience as a coach yet,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can get that taken care of in my first year of coaching. We have the talent to do that, and whether we get there or not is also up to the girls.”

Aside from the ultimate postseason goal, Lamb said she sees leadership potential in her current roster that she wants to pull out of her players, both on and off the field.

Fostering those leadership qualities begins in the summer. With the 2018 season about six weeks away, the girls have been working out three days a week and are looking to go even harder after the dead week in early July. That hard work, Lamb says, is something her players aren’t running away from. 

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“The girls are already ready to play,” she said. “They’re super jazzed about getting onto the field and getting their cleats dirty.”