The Portal Panther softball team lost eight of their nine starters from a year ago and have struggled a bit out of the gates. Among the key losses was starting pitcher and this season freshman Emma Johnson has taken over on the mound. While she’s had her ups and downs head coach Travis Motes feels she has put in the work to get better and is confident she will continue to improve. 

“I am very proud of Emma,” Motes said. “She has an extremely good work ethic. She is a very determined young lady. She is becoming a leader for this team. We have kind of put her in the spotlight this year as our starting pitcher and I could not be prouder of what she is doing for her team.” 

“I feel like my role on the team is to lead and show good sportsmanship to my teammates. I know we have a lot of young girls, but we have to work as a team and have fun with what we are doing.  

In my opinion I think things are coming together slowly. I really wish we had the same motivation as we had last year. I just feel like we had that mindset to go so far last year and I am working to try to build our team up and have positive mindsets that lead to success.”