Snow may still be covering the softball diamonds, but the season is underway with a new face in the dugout. The face is not unfamiliar to the students as Park High’s study hall supervisor Adria Rodgers jumped into the head coach position as soon as she had the chance. “There was no hesitation” she stated. With around 30 years of experience, she says in confidence that “softball is in my blood.”
She has been playing softball since she was nine, and has been coaching since she turned 18. Starting out with her father and moving on to coach softball teams of all ages, the Park High grad has lots of experience both playing and coaching the sport.
Rodgers originally wanted to bowl instead of playing softball. “I started subbing on a team when I was nine years old on my sister’s team,” she stated. After this, she went on to play on many competitive teams, going to state multiple years up until she was 16. A softball team for youth past the age of 16 hadn’t been established yet, so Coach Rodgers went over to Bozeman to play for a women’s slow pitch softball team when she was 17 until she was about 23 years old.
Rodgers said, “I came back to Livingston to help start the league that is currently still running.” Rodgers also coached the softball team here at the highschool in the past before stepping away from coaching again. “When you do something for so long, you sometimes just have to take a step back,” she explained. Rodgers also stated, “I have coached from t-ball to coach pitch all the way up to high school softball.”
The team has had one meeting so far this year where they found out about Rodgers taking the coaching position. Open gyms with Coach Rodgers will start this week, but so far the team has only been able to go to open gyms without Coach Rodgers being in attendance. 19 girls were on Rodgers’ sign-up sheet, and with her being the study hall supervisor she knows most of the girls from school already. She said most of the girls were returning from the past year, but there are a few new freshman and eighth graders joining the team.
Rodgers said she is “super stoked” to be coaching the team this season. Mixed reactions have been received from the players. Tess Goosey, who has been playing softball for many years, says she is “glad we have a coach.” Goosey also states that she is “excited to see what she (Coach Rodgers) brings to coaching”. Some of the senior girls are adjusting differently to the change, since former Coach Julie Higgs was coaching the Park High softball team since the 2017-2018 school year.
Although there may be some differences in adjusting to the change of coaches, the players are able to agree their team has been hitting really well even when considering last season’s stats. Rodgers and a few of the girls were able to agree that the team needs to work on their fielding. Rodgers claims to be “definitely a fielding coach” in her words.  Knowing that information, Rodgers says that this is going to be “a rebuild season” and “there’s gonna probably be a lot of switching around positions and stuff like that.” Tess Goosey provided some insight as well, saying “it’s gonna be a growing year for sure.”
Rodgers plans to take the team to divisionals this season, and beyond that to state. Some of the girls say they hope to work on some of their personal skills this season. With a motivated team and a fresh, new, excited coach for softball, the Park High team seems to be headed into a new light with the new season which starts on March 11.