New Kent girls softball coach Maria Bates recaps their journey to state championship
NEW KENT, Va. — Coach Maria Bates is a teacher at New Kent High School. She is also the coach of the 2022 State Champion New Kent Girls Varsity Softball team.
Coach Bates has had the opportunity to coach the varsity softball team since 2017. Before coaching, she played softball her entire life, including when she attended New Kent High School from 2007-2010.
During the offseason, Coach Bates says she focuses on weightlifting and workouts. She believes that this contributes to increased power and also adds to the team chemistry. With this focus, her players were ‘all in’ and did everything the coaches asked of them without complaining or making excuses.
One of the hardest parts of any sport is learning how to take a loss. Coach Bates believes that tough losses build stronger people. She wants the girls to learn that adversity is one of the best teachers, and it is needed to become successful. The coaches preach this to the girls, and they learn to understand that going through tough losses is important and how they respond to that is even more important, not just in the game of softball but also in life.
In 2021 New Kent High School lost the state championship game 1-0. That team returned six starters. That loss also made the team work even harder in the off-season and more determined to bring home the state championship in 2022. Their state championship in 2022 was the first state championship in program history.
Each person defines success differently; for Coach Bates, it is not based on the number of wins or losses in a season but on past players. For Coach Bates, she looks to the former players coming back to games or practices to support the current team or to tell her about the things that they are accomplishing in their life. The game of softball ends for everyone at some point, but the lessons that they learn on the field help them to succeed in the real world.
As a coach, she hopes that the players know that she loves and cares for them on and off the field. Coach Bates wants them to reflect on their time in high school and remember being part of this program that gave them some of the best memories of their life.
Coach Bates also thanked the New Kent High School administration, the New Kent County Superintendent, and the school board office. But she was most enthusiastic in her thanks to the community for supporting the New Kent softball for the last few years. Coach Bates stated that there was no place quite like New Kent County, and she loved seeing the community come out and cheer the team on with such passion at the games.
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