By Titus Mohler

Correspondent

The 2012 Lady Saints will be immortalized in school softball history, and it was due to success driven by senior leadership that brought the whole team together.

“I was really proud of them because I feel like this year they stuck together,” head coach Kim Aston said.

Aston knew what the highlight of this year was right away — beating archrival Greenbrier Christian Academy in the TCIS championship for the first time in 10 years. However, she explained another reason why it was even more special for this Lady Saints team.

“This team is made up of kids that have basically gone to NSA their entire lives, and Greenbrier brings in pitchers year after year after year from other places,” she said. “And so being able to beat them, doing it with kids that have been a part of the program for four years, was a really good feeling for them.”

It was the last opportunity the seven seniors would ever have to face Greenbrier, and they led the team into the NSA history books.

Several of the seniors told about what their last year as a Lady Saint meant to them.

“I can safely say that I’ve been playing ball for as long as I can remember,” Nicole Turner said, “but this team is different than anything I’ve ever played with. This is the last time we’ll ever step on a field (together) and I told them before we came out today, I was like, ‘Guys, no matter what happens, I’m proud of you, we’ve accomplished everything we wanted to do this year.’”

“Well, I find it funny,” Ugi Metzger said. “Our coaches in the beginning of the year, they made us write our goals for this year, and it was winning TCIS and going to states and going as far as we could and we did just that.”

“Last year, we were a good team,” Jordan Cipcic said. “But this year, we definitely stepped up with leadership and I think that’s what made us come together as a team.”

“We meshed together really well,” Metzger said. “I guess that was part of our great success.”

“I taught them as eighth-graders,” Aston said, “and then when they were in ninth grade it was my first year coming back to coaching softball. I can remember, they all wanted to stay together and play JV one more year, so I told them, ‘No, that’s not happening. You’re all playing varsity.’”

“We get along so well and I’m going to miss them all,” Morgan Daughtry said.

“I love them all,” Turner said. “We’re more than a team, we’re friends. It’s a dream team.”