Years ago, Stephanie Shelley played softball while living in eastern Oklahoma.

Now, she will get to coach it for the first time as she will head the first-ever Wellsville-Middletown Junior High softball team, which will take the field for the first time on Sept. 9.

Shelley currently works as a school bus driver and a paraprofessional at the W-M School District. After the W-M Board of Education approved having softball at the junior high school, activities director Kevin Oligschlaeger started looking for coaches before Shelley chose to take over the position.

“I just wanted to get more involved with the community and I thought this would be a great way of doing it,” Shelley said.

On Aug. 3, Shelley and the softball team held a bake sale at the parking lot of American Bank of Freedom, located next to the four-way stop at Wellsville. Eight players helped out with the bake sale that started at 8 a.m. and ended in the early part of the afternoon.

“My assistant coach Amy and I came up with some ideas for trying to raise money for our girls since it’s a new program and we have to get equipment and stuff for them,” Shelley said. “We decided that a bake sale would be a really good choice.”

W-M held a softball camp from Aug. 5-7. Its first practice is scheduled on Aug. 20, which is the first day of school.

Shelley said there will be about 12 players on the team, most of them have been playing together since T-ball.

“It will be a new experience for everybody, especially with it being the first year of junior high,” Shelley said. “It’s going to be different than playing the little league stuff. I think it will go well.”

Alexis Brennan, an eighth-grader, is one of several players who started playing T-ball. She said she’s looking forward to playing on the first W-M Junior High softball team.

“I’m very excited this year since we’re doing a new program,” Alexis said.

Softball became the fifth sport at W-M Junior High, joining cross country, boys and girls basketball and track. Shelley said she is happy that the junior high school added softball as a feeder program for the high school, which is bringing back softball this fall after a year hiatus.

“I do think that it’s very important,” Shelley said. “I’m hoping that the more programs that the school gets, it will be able to raise the population of Wellsville and kind of bring people back into the community. I feel like if the school offers more things, then we could probably get a lot more kids.”

The Tigers start their season on Sept. 9 with a home game against North Callaway. They will play eight games, five of them will be played at home.
Karlie Schofield, a sixth-grader, said she can’t wait to get on the field in about a month.

“I’m kind of scared because I’m the youngest on the team,” she said. “But I’m excited.”