The North Oldham Lady Mustangs made their first regional appearance for the first time since 2017 last season. Bart Becker hopes to continue the success in his first season as the head coach in Goshen.
Becker was an assistant last year under 2023 head coach Jeff Wagner and is hoping that last year was the start of a culture change at North Oldham.
“We did a great job of establishing what we wanted the program to look like and how the team and the girls will play,” Becker said. “We have a lot of talent here. They’re still very young. Our goal is to keep all the momentum that we gained last year and this year going for the next three years, four years, five years as we have middle schoolers coming up. Hopefully, we’re off to a good start here.”
In Becker’s first week as the head coach, his team has gone 2-3. Brooke Bennett, the lone senior and upperclassmen on the team, hit a game-winning grand slam in the season opener against Collins on March 11. She has had an .800 batting average, two home runs and nine RBIs to start the year.
“[Kori Johnson] led our game off with a lead-off home run, so that really set the game for our offense,” Bennett said. “Our defense, once we got settled down, we were fine. We just need to give our young pitchers easy plays. Offensively for me, I’ve done the work this offseason. I just need to let it fly. It was my mindset going into the games. My team puts me into position to give them RBIs.”
Being the only senior, Bennett hopes to teach them the game of softball while also making the game fun for the younger players.
“It’s important to help everyone else as much as I can and not only lead them but teach them the game of softball,” Bennett said. “I think it’s important for me to have fun with them and also keep reminding them it’s supposed to be fun to play this game. I think for myself I’m really just making sure I’m having fun myself, because I can get in my head a lot and I just want to have fun.”
Bennett led the team in batting average, hits, triples and home runs last season. She believes playing travel ball over the offseason and facing different pitchers has helped her get even better at the plate.
“I’ve really worked on my hitting and not getting down on myself after messing up in a game, because softball is ultimately a game of failure, and if you mess up one time, it’s fine,” Bennett said.
Becker believes Bennett is one of the best players in the state and sees her as a huge asset to the team because of her leadership ability off the field and her ability to lead on the field with her play.
“She’s our captain for a reason on the volleyball team here,” Becker said. “She’s great. The girls, they love her. They look up to her, and she does a great job of being like a big sister to them…I think that maybe not everyone knows about her, because she does a lot of volleyball. She’s been very active in volleyball, but she’s a Division I softball player, signed with Longwood, and having someone like that is an asset to any team.”
The Lady Mustangs’ lead-off hitter, sophomore Kori Johnson, opened the season with a lead-off home run and is hitting a .556 average to start the season. Johnson wants to hype her teammates up while being the lead-off batter and wants to prove to the younger girls that if she can get things done, then they can get things done.
“It’s been really huge for me mentally being the lead off, because I have struggled in the past with things like that,” Johnson said. “I think it’s very cool for Bart to believe in me to be that number one role for everybody on the team.”
Johnson played in 31 games last year, hitting a .310 average. She feels like she’s grown a lot mentally and has more confidence now when she walks up to the plate.
“So far this season, it’s been very good making sure I take that deep breath before I get in the batter’s box and knowing that I can do something good for my team,” Johnson said. “I think that’ll be very good. The offseason was huge for me. I saw a lot of progress, something I did not see last year.”
Becker looks for Johnson to be impactful and sees the potential in her game.
“She is a game changer,” Becker said. “She can change the game with one play, whether it be offense or defense. She worked really hard as far as strength and conditioning and also on her game…She’s working on her bunny, she’s working on switch hitting, she’s working on slapping, so she’s becoming more dangerous. I think she can be impactful for our team. That’s why she’s in the lead-off spot.”
North Oldham returns its second best hitter on the team last year in freshman Campbell White. White drove in the most runs last year, hit for the most doubles and tied for the most home runs on the team. She had the second most hits and second best batting average.
White feels the biggest growth for her and the team over the offseason is from conditioning at Never Satisfied Performance. She believes the team has gotten stronger and faster over the offseason.
“I feel that definitely, as a team, everybody grew so much speed wise and just overall strength,” White said. “I’ve seen that really help me throwing the ball harder, me hitting the ball harder, me running bases faster. I feel that’s where a lot of the growth has originated.”
White wants to make sure she’s going 100% every time she steps onto the field and leaves negative things off the field.
“I will always look to take the extra base, always look to stay going 100% and keep my teammates up too, because I know a lot of them, they strike out they’re down, they mess up they’re down and keeping them up is a very important task as a teammate,” White said.
On the mound, the Lady Mustangs have both of their pitchers returning from last season. Sophomores Kadie Bosemer and Jessalyn Travis pitched a combined 193 innings last year. Travis started 20 games while Bosemer started 13.
Becker has seen them get better each year since they were seventh graders playing on varsity. He believes the travel circuit and showcases in the summer and fall have helped them develop their game and grow their game.
“Right now, those two together are doing a great job,” Becker said. “We’re going to have to use both of them as a pitching team. It’s not going to be one of them. We’re going to need both of them. The difference this year, not necessarily different from last year, is they’re ready…Last year, they gained a lot of experience. This past year with summer and fall, they’ve really improved and put in a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work.”
Johnson has seen Travis and Bosemer grow over the offseason mentally and physically.
“I think everybody was very excited,” Johnson said. “The offseason was very huge for us. This was something new we’ve never tried before, and it just honestly made everybody a lot stronger…For instance, Kadie started the scrimmage. She did phenomenal. Jessalyn came in [March 11] and started us off the game very well. I think physically, their bodies have gotten a lot bigger, and that is helping us in the end game.”
Bennett feels like the defense is on lockdown and has seen some of the younger players step up on the defensive side of the game.
“We have Raleigh [Becker] this year,” Bennett said. “She’s an eighth grader. She’s really stepped up and filled the shoes we needed her to fill. She’s a really good defender, and she also hits the ball pretty far. I think our outfield is on lockdown. KJ’s had a great start to the season already…I feel like I can rely on any of them to make a play.”
Becker is coaching his daughter, freshman Avery Becker, and his niece, Raleigh Becker. He’s enjoyed coaching them throughout the high school year, because he gets more time with them. Even though she’s in middle school, Becker sees Raleigh being ready to play at any time while he’s seen Avery grow over the offseason.
“[Avery’s] a hard worker. She’s got the ability,” Becker said. “She had a good high school season last year. She’s put in a lot of hard work. She had a really good fall travel season. Hopefully, she can continue all that into the high school season and same for all of them, but we need all of them to contribute and compete and achieve goals we’re working towards.”
Johnson has seen Kadie develop a lot from last season along with the freshman trio of White, Avery and Alexandra Wagner.
“Kadie has been a very big role in that,” Johnson said. “I also think that our freshmen Alex Wagner, Campbell White and Avery Becker are three huge freshmen on our team that have very much helped out. I think all of us are very huge leaders for everybody. Obviously with Brooke being captain this year, she is the person that everybody can rely on.”
White has seen Wagner fit in well at first base and seen her make plays throughout the first week of the season. White has also seen Kadie really develop her pitching with being more consistent and more confident in her pitches.
“She hit a bomb the other night at our scrimmage,” White said. “She has grown in so many different ways; mentally and physically, at the plate, on the mound, in every single way possible. She only got faster and stronger last season too.”
With such a young team, Becker worked with a lot of these players on travel teams. He believes his underclassmen have a lot of talent.
“They have the talent, and as a group of sophomores and freshmen now, they’ve been playing together,” Becker said. “They’re all good friends. They’ve been going to school together. They have good chemistry, and we’re very excited for the next two, three years.”
Bennett wants to help these younger players grow like the seniors before her while showing them how much fun the game is to play.
“These freshmen and underclassmen have such a smart softball IQ, and they know a lot,” Bennett said. “I really want to help them learn that softball is just a game, and at the end of the day, you’re going to have other things to do. I think it’s important for them to have fun, because if they don’t love the game, then they’re going to stop playing. I think they need to keep playing, because they’re that good.”
Johnson wants to prove people wrong that you can win with a young team.
“They think that we’re just a young team that they’re going to be able to beat real easily, and that’s just not something they know,” Johnson said. “I think our goals this year is to win districts and be the number one seed to put us in regionals. Those are big dreams that I think that we’ll be able to accomplish this year.”
For Bennett’s senior year, Becker wants to win on senior night. He wants her to remember playing in the district and regional tournament and playing at the Ulmer Stadium at the University of Louisville, starting with the second round of regionals.
“I want her to remember all the batting practice that we took, and I have a joke,” Becker said. “I throw a lot of batting practice for her, and if she ever gets in a home run derby, she’ll call me up to throw batting practice like they do in all-star games…She might get in college and come home for the summer say, ‘hey, Coach Bart, come throw me batting practice,’ so little things like that. She’s very well prepared for what she’s going to be facing in college. She’s the last person that I worry about.”
Bennett wants to remember the bonds she built with her teammates.
“I really just want to build relationships with my teammates and have fun with it,” Bennett said. “This year, we want to reach that region tournament and hopefully state. I just want to look back and know that I did my best and had fun.”