By Byron Beers/Staff Writer

Extensive summer league play has paid huge dividends for a good number of El Reno softball players.

Indians head coach Lynetta Keller was the first to take notice when her team held its first mandatory practice on Monday morning at Joe E. Riley Stadium.

Keller, who is entering her third season as head coach for El Reno, liked what she saw for day one and is excited to get started.

“We looked really good,” Keller said. “The girls did a great job all summer long and have really improved. It has carried over into practice, so I was really excited to see that good work ethic today.”

Keller was also pleased with the overall turnout as 19 players reported to practice. Another five are expected to join the team but are currently playing for the Bad Side at the ASA Gold Nationals in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Indians are just two weeks away from their season opener. They will travel to Norman to play in the Tuttle tournament on Aug. 9.

While Keller is pleased with individual improvements over the summer, she stuck with basic fundamentals on the first day of workouts. The Indians worked on fielding, throwing and did some timed running.

“We worked a lot on our running to let them know where they are at with their speed,” Keller said. “We took groundball, flyballs and did a lot of throwing.

“We didn’t do any hitting because we just wanted to stick with the fundamentals for the first day. I let them choose their positions and then we switched around to other areas.”
The home opener and Suburban Conference opener are slated for Monday, Aug. 13 against Guthrie at 6:30 p.m.

Keller guided the Indians to an 18-18 overall mark and 7-7 conference record in 2006. She was named the Oklahoma High School Fast-pitch Coaches Association Region I Coach of the Year.

The Indians will have to replace a pair of key players in Bre Carpenter and Andrea Dyer. Carpenter and Dyer were both all-conference selections and also selected to the All-Region I team as seniors.

This season, Keller will turn to seniors Tana Ramsey, Angelique Johnson, Chelcie Robb and Emily Holbrook for leadership.

Ramsey is coming off major knee surgery and has been rehabing to get back and hopes to be ready for the season opener.

“Tana had big-time surgery on her knee, but she has been going through rehad every day and is working extremely hard to get back in there,” Keller said.

Others who saw valuable time last year and who are back include Ashlea Hill, Kellie Mogg, Katie Shemanske and Torie Houchin.

El Reno also has three players who have moved in and each are expected to contribute.

Katie Raines is a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher who could solidify the pitching staff. Raines played for Class 6A Yukon last season. Destinee Foust is a catcher who is coming in from Chickasha.

“I haven’t seen any kind of enrollment from any of the three so right now they’re just prospective move-ins,” Keller said.

“We’re not worried one bit about our numbers. We have some good freshmen coming in as well so we’re going to be just fine and I’m very excited about this team.”

Keller will have two assistant coaches this year in Jay Howard and Kevin Jumper.