The Lady Panthers take the field this Saturday on the road against Christopher Newport.
At the helm, is Head Coach Joshua Freeman, and this will be his first year at the college.
“The goals for this season are to improve daily, create a culture to represent Ferrum at the highest standard, and to win as many games as possible,” Freeman said.
The roster is made up of four seniors, three juniors, five sophomores, and seven freshmen.
“We are lucky to have a good number of upperclassmen to lead by example and create a culture to represent Ferrum,” Freeman said.
Last season didn’t go as planned with the team finishing 11-25 overall and 3-17 in ODAC play.
This year, Freeman has taken over and says the offseason work coincides with working hard and creating a culture of winning.
“The players have brought fantastic energy to the field. Coaching changes are not easy and are a huge adjustment,” Freeman said. “The players have bought in and have come to practice working hard and being good teammates.”
He also said a couple players to look out for this season are senior infielders Breanna Weaver and Kerstin Snyder.
Last year, Weaver hit .304–second highest on the team–in the 36 games she started, and had a .964 fielding percentage, only committing 5 errors on the season.
Snyder hit .250 in the nine games she started last year. On defense she had a 1.000 fielding percentage.
Softball plays its first six games on the road before playing a home opener Sun., March 3 against Misericordia.
“After the six road contests, we will have a good idea on what improvements we need to work towards for conference play,” Freeman said.
Conference play will start Sat., March 23 when the Panthers host Virginia Wesleyan University.
Before that, the team will play 18 out-of-conference games.
“We are looking to continue to build as a team, improve in all areas to build momentum into the tough ODAC conference play,” Freeman said, on what he is looking for as a coach in the non-conference games.
Although Freeman is new to campus, he is not new to Division III softball.
He started his coaching career at Virginia Wesleyan, where they won the national championship in 2017.
Freeman then was the assistant coach at Newport University where the team achieved its first national #1 ranking.
Before Ferrum, Freeman was the head coach at Northeast Texas Community College, where the team had the most wins and highest win percentage in a season, along with the best finish in National Junior College Athletic Association Region XIV conference program history.
Freeman said he looks to bring the same winning culture to the diamond here this season.
