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East heads into its first softball season with Sydney Davis as the official head coach when the Lady Hurricanes journey to Grainger County to open their season on Monday.

Davis took over as interim coach when Heather Martin resigned 11 games into the 2022 season before being named the coach after the season was over.

Under Davis, the Lady ‘Canes posted a 14-5 record to finish the year at 18-11-1 before suffering a controversial loss to Daniel Boone in the first round of the region tournament. East will play its home opener on Tuesday by hosting Boone at 5:30 p.m.

Last year’s district pitcher of the year Kylie Rader heads the list of returnees for East. A Johnson University commit, Rader was 13-10 last year with a 1.57 earned run average. She struck out 196 in 155 innings of work.

Three other starters return from last year although none of them will be playing the same position.

Ella Wampler will start at first base after playing third last season, Keely Shisler has moved from first base to the outfield and Zoe Shelley will be the catcher after being the second baseman last year. Another returning starter, Harmony Sullivan, was lost for the season because of a knee injury suffered during basket.

Shisler batted .356 a year ago to lead the team and will be the leadoff batter again. She has good speed and a good eye at the plate and fits the role very well. Wampler batted .192 and had 15 runs batted in.

Rader batted .319 and give the Lady ‘Canes another capable hitter in the lineup. Shelly did not bat as a DP was used for her at the plate.

Rounding out the probable starting lineup will be Adasia Davis at third, Haylee Smith at second, Kaleah Davis in center, Hailey Hall in left and freshman Jaycee Hamilton at shortstop.

Rader, Shisler, Adasia Davis and Smith are seniors while Hall, Shelley and Kaleah Davis are juniors. Sophomores include Wampler, Sullivan, Hudson Cloninger and Jadyn Valentine while Hannah Hall and Macy Davis are other freshmen.

Cloninger, Hannah Hall and Macy Davis will likely get playing time in the infield while Valentine is an outfielder.

Wampler will also see some action on the pitching rubber. Last season she had a 2-0 record and struck out 28 in 17 innings.

“We got some girls who have played a lot and we have others who haven’t seen a significant amount of varsity time in high school softball,” remarked Davis. “But we have good senior leadership in Kylie and Keely.”

Davis talked about her team’s offensive prospects. “Keely does a tremendous job leading off but right now we’re still looking for somebody for the No. 2 spot. That’s where Harmony battled last year and did really well.

“Our batting order is a work in process right now,” said the coach. “We’re going to see who will produce for us and figure it out. We should have some pop with several girls capable of hitting the long but I’d like to think we could play a little small ball if we need to.”

Davis said, “We’ve had several scrimmages and I think we’ve seen some pretty good pitching which is what we needed.

“We’ve got several girls who have taken some time off from softball but are back now,” Davis said. “We’ve got a team full of good athletes that are working on our softball IQ.”

The coach said her team should be pretty good defensively even though she has players at different positions. “Again we’ve got great athletes that are working really hard. I think we’ll be a solid team defensively, especially when we get everybody comfortable where they’re at.”

Davis admitted things have been very different for her this year. “There was a lot less time for me to think and worry last year because I didn’t know I would be the head coach. But I’ve had plenty of time for those things this time around.

“I’ve definitely had more time to prepare where last year I just felt lucky enough to be the coach when I got the opportunity. It was kind of trial by fire for Kendi (assistant coach Barnard) and myself but this time we’ve had time to prepare as well as plenty of time to worry about it.”

She said they took over a team that had some issues last year and spent time in getting the girls together as a team and thinks that will be one of the keys for her squad in 2023.

“I think how well we fit together as a team will play a big role in our success,” she explained. “It’s not offense or defense, it’s us as a team. I think we started last season not together as a team and I think that’s why we struggled.

“This year, I want to start with us as a team and finish the year with us as a team. I feel we have a good relationship with our girls. We tell them why we’re doing what we’re doing and they need to trust us and we need to trust them. I think that’s more important than x’s and o’s or just offense and defense.”

Davis added, “We’re excited about the season and looking for good things to happen.”

The Lady ‘Canes have a beefed up schedule with the likes of Daniel Boone, Knox Powell, Greeneville and Grainger County as well as tournaments in Johnson City, Greeneville and Gulf Shores to go along with district foes West, Jefferson County and Sevier County.