TISHOMINGO SOFTBALL
At Tishomingo, they’re accustomed to traveling a couple of hours to play a softball game. And since Charles Hook has been the head softball coach, they’ve also become used to traveling the two hours it takes to go to Oklahoma City to play in the state championship. In the six years Hooks has been coach, the Indians have captured two state fast pitch titles and appeared at other state tournamentsuntil 2023.
“We only had one senior last year, so we were young and had to regroup a little. We like to get the girls into little league and things like that and keep them together through high school,” said Hooks. “We did that with my older daughter Jaydn (now playing softball at Southwestern) and we won state in 2019 and 2020. Now my youngest daughter Jordyn is one of three seniors this year that will hopefully get us back to state. We try to do a lot of team bonding both in school ball and travel ball where these girls have all played together. We go eat after games and the girls all put down their phones and talk to each other and they know each other pretty well and really care about one another. There’s really no I on our team.”
Jordyn is one of those three seniors and is one of team leaders. She played second base her freshman year and then moved to the outfield for the past two seasons.
“Jordyn led the team in just about every offensive category last year. She’s a consistent hitter who rarely strikes out. The sparkplug of the team is probably Jolee Prentice. She’s very vocal, has been a four-year starter at shortstop, brings treats to all the games and is areal firecracker that the girls all love. The other senior is Emily Austin. She moved here her sophomore year and is always a happy-go-lucky girl with a great attitude. She pitches and is one of the better hitters on the team who can also hit with some power,” said Hook.
Jordyn says the closeness of the team makes it easy to be a team leader.
“I’m just always supporting all the girls through good and bad, and we just pick each other up,” she said.
Coaching his two daughters has been a blessing but sometimes hard according to Hooks.
“I’m probably harder on them than the other girls because I have higher expectations. Sometimes people think I might play favorites,but I’ve found that coaches are usually harder on their own kids and sometimes I have to check with my assistants to make sure I’m not being too hard on them.”
Both coach and player are looking forward to the upcoming season.
“We’re still pretty young but we’re more experienced,” said the coach. “We’ll have a tough schedule with tournaments in Calera, Silo and Tushka and a district that includes Idabel, Silo, Valliant and Antlers, but I think last year was a big learning experience for us.”
Jordyn was a little more specific.
“I think if our pitching and catching are more consistent this year, we’ll be pretty good.”
And maybe that will mean another fun-filled bus ride to Oklahoma City.
