Under the first-year tutelage of Head Coach Nate Shackleton, the DC softball team had a successful and very encouraging season, finishing 8-11. In addition, juniors Corina DeBellis and Abby Gifford, along with freshmen Juliet Jackson and Kaylee Kroll, all earned All-BAL Second Team honors. 
The team’s final game of the season came in the district semifinals, where they fell to a formidable Dock Mennonite squad. Despite the loss, the Knights put up a good fight against Dock’s two best pitchers, showing great improvement from their previous two games against the Pioneers. 
In fact, this improvement and progress was a recurring theme throughout the season, as the eight wins that the team compiled this season is more than the previous two seasons combined. Coach Shackleton is very encouraged by the leaps that his team has made. “It’s exciting to see the huge strides we made in even this one season we had," he remarked.
The DC softball team was composed of one senior, five juniors, five sophomores, and five freshmen. This youth was compounded by some inexperience, yet the team underwent considerable growth, making the season a great success. “To see where we grew in terms of softball IQ was super encouraging,” Coach Shackleton explained. “We should be super encouraged by how we played and not necessarily the result.” 
This growth spurred motivation in the girls that Coach Shackleton hopes will carry into the offseason, which he sees as very important in the development of the team and their success next season. “The nine months that we aren’t playing is far more important than the three months that we are playing,” the first-year coach stated. In short, he is hoping that the motivation that the team currently possesses will contribute to hard work being put in during the offseason. Junior Corina DeBellis, a major contributor to the team, is dedicated to working hard during the offseason. “Over the offseason, I like to practice throwing and batting with my brother a lot,” she commented.
Additionally, Shackleton sees the underclassmen as very important to this growth mindset. In fact, he looks to them to step into greater leadership roles next year in order to achieve even greater improvement. Specifically, Juliet Jackson, Kaylee Kroll, and Kathryn Certo, the three freshman starters for the softball team, are the ones he looks to the most. “They’ll be important in the future and could be shoved into leadership roles,” Coach Shackleton proclaimed. “They will push and make our team better.”
All in all, the young DC softball team wrapped up an encouraging season defined by a growth that is producing optimism for the future of the program.