With the last week of April approaching and the calendar turning to May, the Hamilton Southeastern Royals Softball team is at the halfway point of the season. The Royals enter the back half with a record of eleven wins to just three losses. This year, success has been built on leadership and culture.
Jaycee McCarter, a Freshman, has bought into the “more than softball” culture and has applied it on the field with her teammates.
“To me our culture is if you make a mistake, someone is always there for you,” Freshman Jaycee McCarter said, “messing up is okay because someone else is going top pick you up.”
Even though McCarter is a Freshman, she has been able to buy in to the culture and become a leader. In addition to leadership, Jaycee McCarter leads the HCC conference in home runs with eight and has put in quality time on the mound as a pitcher and in the field starting at third base.
“Leading the conference in home runs is cool and I want to continue to build off that,” McCarter said, “and being able to start at third and pitch for this team has been really good.”
McCarter is excited about the opportunities in the field and at the plate this season has presented her. Even though she is off to a great start, McCarter hopes to continue to get better and improve over the latter half of the season. Doing so would help McCarter accomplish her own goals along with the team goals the Royals have for the rest of the year.
“Personally, I hope to finish top five in the state in home runs and finish first in the conference for home runs as well,” McCarter said, “but more importantly as a team we want to go all the way to state.”
Even though the goal is to reach the state championship and win for the Royals, McCarter and her teammates realize they have to prepare intentionally and find ways to get better at practice everyday.
“After a game, when you go to practice the next day you know things you need to work on,” McCarter said, “with Mudsock and other big games coming up we have to remain really focused at practice and figure out how we can execute.”
As the season continues on and the games start to become even more important, Jaycee McCarter hopes to continue to be a good teammate to others and up her level of play on the softball diamond. The transition to the high school level and all that comes with representing HSE has been made easy for McCarter, largely due to the specialness of this team.
“Playing on this team is special because when someone is down everyone else picks them up and is always supportive,” McCarter said, “Also, everyone knows how to have fun and not let mistakes bring each other down.”
