Kelly Walsh leads way in Wyoming’s first high school softball season
CASPER, Wyo. (BVM) — High school softball is happening in Wyoming for the first time this spring and it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the Kelly Walsh Trojans are having the most success out of the 13 varsity teams that are competing in the inaugural season. Trojans head coach Claire Smith, who also coaches for the Casper Rebels travel ball program, spearheaded the movement to make softball a part of Wyoming high school athletics.
The process started about two and a half years ago when Smith and another travel ball coach, Dallen Griffith, paired their teams together and started attending school board meetings every two weeks, with players and coaches presenting to the board that there was high interest in softball in Casper. Eventually, as Casper finally received the green light from its school board and the Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA), seven other towns jumped on board to make high school softball a reality in the state for the first time.
“It’s been really exciting because this has been a couple of years in the process of getting this going for the girls,” Smith said. “We’ve just kind of been waiting and waiting and it’s been very exciting to see it get started and see all the schools come out. We have definitely seen a lot of these girls in their travel-ball teams but it’s nice to actually see them representing their school, playing for their school, and being able to play the sport they love.”
No team was more prepared to play high school softball than Smith’s squad. No. 1-ranked Kelly Walsh (11-1) won its first eight games of the season and appears to be the team to beat as the first regular season nears conclusion and the first state tournament draws closer.
“We definitely have some very athletic girls that are on our team and we also have girls that have been doing this since third or fourth grade,” Smith said. “Most of these girls have been playing travel ball for years now. This isn’t just something that these girls just said, ‘Hey, we’re going to go try out,’ they’ve been doing this for many years and going to camps and playing all summer also.”
The Trojans have been led offensively by sophomore Kynlee Griffith, who has a team-high 24 hits, and junior Brooke Lijewski, who has 18 hits, including a team-high seven home runs. Griffith has also been the team’s top pitcher with no earned runs allowed and 31 strikeouts recorded in 17 ⅓ innings pitched. But Smith said senior outfielder Arianah Plorin (12 hits in 29 at-bats) has been the team’s most influential leader.
“She’s just pretty serious about the game,” Smith said. “She definitely likes to have the structure with the practices and the games. She has leadership skills like, ‘Hey, this is the way coach wants it, this is the way we’re gonna do it.’ She just definitely can get the girls fired up and ready to go.”
All 13 teams are all classified as 4A for the first season, with six teams placed in the 4A West division and the other seven in the 4A East division. The Trojans have secured the West’s top seed for the inaugural state tournament, which will be held May 20-22 in Gillette. While they might be considered the favorite to capture the first WHSAA state title, Smith isn’t exactly setting championship-or-bust expectations.
“Our expectation every time we go out and play someone is they’re ready for us and we’re ready for them,” Smith said “We don’t know what’s coming so we just come out hard and hot and just keep that going throughout the game. Some of these towns who have never had travel ball, we didn’t know what to expect. We definitely have always focused on [ourselves]. We don’t know what they have, so we’re just going to go out and give them what we have. We know what we have.”
Regardless of what happens at the first state tournament for Kelly Walsh, the first season of high school softball in Wyoming will undoubtedly go down as a success.
“There’s definitely more hype and more excitement when we’re playing for our high school,” Smith said. “I definitely see that in the girls and on the other teams. Having newspaper articles and Facebook articles and having the news there has been exciting for the girls. All the other teams and coaches have been great. It’s been a friendly atmosphere. We all want to keep this sport for these girls so it’s been a very good experience.”
