“She’s definitely a huge role model in my life,” Jolee said of Shelby. “I try not to be exactly like her, but it’s kind of hard because she’s almost perfect. She’s a great person.”

Baker softball coach John Carlisle has coached both sisters and he looks at coaching siblings as a parent dealing with the different strengths and personality traits of their children.

“When as a parent, you have multiple children, you know each one has their own special characteristics,” he said. “I don’t think (Jolee) lived in (Shelby’s) shadow. She created something else. At the end of the day, she created her own path.”

Jolee also has played volleyball at Baker, but admits that softball is her favorite sport and if she had to choose between the two, softball would be the one she played. However, she was quick to add that she loves volleyball too.

Some athletes talk about certain skills or positions being the favorite part of their sport. Sloan is not one of those athletes. She loves people and it’s the people aspect of sports she enjoys the most.

“I love my teammates,” she said. “I love seeing us grow as a team. I just love working as a team to get to what we want to accomplish.”

Sloan enjoys playing the field more than swinging the bat.

“You don’t strike out in the field,” she said.

The Sloan family arrived in Baker when Jolee was in the fifth grade and she has embraced the K-12 experience the school offers.

“My favorite part is (being a teacher aide),” she said. “The last three years I’ve been aiding for kindergarten class. It is just so cute because you’re their role model and every time they see you in the hallways they get all so excited.

“And I like to watch the middle school games and just see everybody grow up,” Sloan added. “I think it’s the cutest thing ever.”

Carlisle has seen dozens of players step on the diamond in his tenure as the Lady Gator softball coach and Jolee Sloan is one of the players who has touched him the deepest.

“There’s not just one single thing I’m going to miss about her,” he said. “She’s a great kid, always happy, always smiling. She just has an infectious personality.

“There’s not one thing I could pinpoint and say I miss about her because there’s a lot of things she does well,” Carlisle added. “She’s a very unselfish young lady and she always wants to make sure the needs of other people are met 100%.”

“It was more just wanting to try something different,” Smith said. “I needed to grow a little bit as far as softball goes. And we were living in Crestview at the time so it kind of worked out better.

“But we moved back here, and it just made more sense to come back and play with the girls I’ve grown up with,” she added. “I came back for my junior and senior years.”

Smith said the transition back to Baker went more smoothly than she expected, and that Baker feels more like home than Crestview.

That said, Smith is glad she made the decision to spend time away from Baker. She has nothing but good things to say about Crestview High School softball coach Michelle Howard, who also was her travel ball coach.

“I played with coach Howard for a really long time,” Smith said. “I played with her from seventh grade until my sophomore year and I played travel ball with her. I was with her quite a bit and she taught me a lot.

“She taught me a lot about the game,” she added. “She taught me a lot about being a like a good athlete and a person as well. She really helped me grow a lot.”

Smith has already signed to play junior college softball at Lurleen B. Wallace College in Andalusia, Alabama, next year. Having signed her scholarship allows Smith to be more relaxed and play her game.

Smith spends most of her time pitching, and also is listed on the roster as an outfielder. Toeing the pitching rubber and being in the circle is where she wants to be.

“Pitching is a lot of stress and it takes a lot out of you,” she said. “It’s hard on your body and the mental part of it is just really tough. I have a lot of fun in the outfield, and it’s not as near as much stress.

“Sometimes I like the outfield a lot more,” Smith added. “But pitching, that’s my thing.”

Lady Gator softball coach John Carlisle was happy to welcome Smith back to the team. He sees value whatever position she’s playing.

“She’s passionate about what she does,” he said. “A lot of players have the skill set to take it to the next level, but it’s what you do (away from the team) that allows them to make the goal of playing at the next level.”

From the pitching lessons Smith has taken to playing travel softball, the passion has burned deeply and has paid off in her college scholarship.

Carlisle loves Smith’s passion and versatility. He can put her batting third and knows she will hit for power and drive in runs. She’s a ball hawk in the outfield using her athleticism to make plays.

The thing that Carlisle admires the most about Smith though is her competitive fire.

“You want that fieriness and competitiveness as a coach,” he said. “She wants to compete. She wants to be successful.

“When you see those things in student athletes, you know when they finish with their time with you, they’re going to be successful in life and that’s the best thing that you can hope for,” Carlisle added.

“It was a situation where we did make some adjustments where we need to,” Baker coach John Carlisle said. “We had a double, a scratch hit and we tried to claw our way back into the ball game late. But we came up short.”

Baker starting pitcher Alaynah Smith battled most of the evening as she tried to keep the Walton batters off balance and off base. More often than not she was successful in the effort. When she wasn’t, the Walton batters made her pay.

The Braves scored two runs in the first and added four more runs in the fourth to put the game out of reach. A two-run homer by Bailey Crowther was the big shot of the inning for the Braves. Jami Murray hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to close out the Walton scoring.

Baker had a batter reach base every inning with the exception of the fourth.

Carlie Hopps had a one-out walk in the first for Baker. Jena Fedorak walked in the second inning. Riley Frazier walked in the third.

The Lady Gators finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning.

Blakely York had the first Baker hit of the night to lead off the inning. Leighton Mitchell was next and walked. Karley Bishop was safe on an infield hit to load the bases.

There was one out when Baker scored its first two runs on an unusual play. The bases were loaded when Hopps lifted what looked to be an easy fly ball to the infield. The umpires correctly called the infield fly rule which states, “When runners are on first and second or the bases are loaded with less than two out, the batter is automatically out and the base runners advance at their own risk.”

The purpose of the rule is to discourage an infielder from intentionally dropping a pop fly to set up an easy double play.

As it turned out, the Walton first baseman did drop the ball and York and Mitchell scored on the play for Baker.

Jolee Sloan scored for Baker in the sixth as she reached on a single and later touched home on a wild pitch.

Washington is still waiting to score a run against Crestview after CHS blasted the Lady Wildcats 16-0 on Tuesday night. The game was called after four innings by the mercy rule.

“Having a big win like this during spring break is great,” Crestview coach Michelle Howard said. “I definitely think our self-confidence is going to be high when we come back to school.

“I was proud we (the batters) didn’t chase balls all over the place. We were patient at the plate. We walked a lot and were hit by pitches and I’m proud of that.”

Freshman pitcher Cambell Toolan was the star in the circle and at the plate.

Toolan hit one batter, walked one and struck out 10 Lady Wildcats while pitching a complete game no-hitter. She was 2-for-3 at the plate to lead the Lady Bulldog attack.

The only two Washington outs that weren’t strike outs were a line out to Brooklyn Garland at shortstop and when a Lady Wildcat base runner made the mistake of trying to run on Crestview catcher Alex Carroll.

Carroll easily threw out the would-be base stealer for the second out of the fourth inning. The very fact a Wildcat was trying to steal down by 16 runs is not an easy question to answer.

Crestview wasted no time in setting the wheels in motion offensively. Kiara Soler led off the game with a hit and Taylor Courington walked to give the Lady Bulldogs two runners on base with no out.

Soler stole second and third bases and Courington stole second as Toolan lined out to left field and Riley Bowles popped up to first base. Just when it looked as Washington would wiggle out of the first without allowing a run, the Lady Wildcats fell apart.

Crestview scored six runs with two out. Soler scored on a wild pitch and Courington on a passed ball.

By the time Washington recorded the final out, Irie Wolfgramm, Julian Forrest, Moriah Keith and Megan Dietz had scored as well for Crestview. Dietz had the big hit of the inning, a 2-run double. Brooklyn Garland had a hit scoring Dietz.

Courington doubled to left to get Crestview started in the second inning. Toolan drew a walk and Bowles drove the pair home with a double.

Wolfgramm singled up the middle to score Dietz and later scored in the inning as well.

The only frame in which Crestview didn’t score was the third inning. But the Lady Bulldogs were back in attack mode in the fourth as coach Michelle Howard emptied the bench giving all of her players a chance to swing the bat.

Mackenzie Toth started things off with a walk. Kaylah Sears also walked as did Paige Criddle.

Tianna Hill was swinging away and singled to score Toth.

The bases were still loaded with one out when Bella Gibbons stepped in for Soler. Gibbons connected on the first pitch she saw to drive in Sears, Criddle and Toth. Gibbons took third on a throw to the plate.

Gibbons scored when Kendall Merchant grounded out of the second out of the inning.

Toolan doubled and scored the last Lady Bulldog run on a single by Madi Muse.

“I’m ready to see how my girls stack up against them,” she said. “It’s not going to get much harder this season.”

To say the Hoboes will be young might be an understatement. In the K-12 school, middle school students are allowed to compete at the varsity level. Laurel Hill will have more middle school players, four, than seniors, two.

Three of those players are in the eighth grade. There are three sophomores and two juniors on the roster.

Hannah Twitty, one of the juniors, will take the pitching circle for Laurel Hill and Harrison sees a breakout season for her.

“I see big things happening for her and my catcher (junior Raelee McDonald),” Harrison said. “We are looking good at those positions.

“We’ve been focusing on defense the last few days,” she added. “Our defense looks really good. And our bats are coming around.”

Along with Twitty and McDonald, Harrison said Neveah Langford, a sophomore, is expected to have a good season. Langford has been one of the better hitters as the Hoboes neared the start of the season.

Harrison is interested to see what will happen when the team hits the field.

“I want to see how the team plays together,” she said. “I want to see how their bats come alive.”

“It’s going to be amazing,” she added. “We have two stellar pitchers this year and people that are driven. The competition has been crazy on the field during practice.”

The pitchers Howard mentioned are both freshmen, which speaks well for the future of the program. Cambell Toolan and Julian Forrest are the pitchers with the huge upside.

“They both play very high-level travel (softball),” Howard said. “So, this level will not be shocking to them.

“They’re working with experienced seniors this year, so I think that that’s going to help,” she added.

Catching the freshmen pitchers will be senior Alex Carroll.

“(Having Carroll catching) definitely eases my mind,” Howard said.

Carroll is one of several veteran players that should shine in 2023.

Kiara Soler, Riley Bowles, Kaylah Sears, Paige Criddle are some of the other seniors that will lead the team.

Howard said the Lady Bulldogs will be solid on defense at every position and the good news is she was unable to name one or two defensive players that were heads and shoulders above the rest.

Criddle, Forrest and Bowles are three of the players that will bat in the heart of the Lady Bulldog lineup giving them good power to go along with the strong pitching and defense.

Crestview plays in a new district this year along with Niceville, Mosley and Tallahassee schools Chiles and Leon.

“I know that Chiles is always really good,” Howard said. “Mosley has a good reputation. I don’t really know anything about Leon.

“We know that we have the potential to beat Niceville this year. I’m excited about that game,” she added.

With the uncertainties in the district, it’s a matter of playing things out.

“We just have to figure things out,” Howard said. “We’re just going to see where things go right now.”

With that in mind, the Crestview softball team is hosting the Crestview High School Lady Softball Camp on Feb. 18. The camp will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is open for players ages 4 years old through eighth grade.

The cost of the camp is $75 and includes a camp T-Shirt and lunch. You must preregister by Feb. 15 to receive a T-shirt.

The skills taught include every aspect of softball from hitting and fielding to base running as well as pitching. Current Lady Bulldogs will help coach the camp and Howard is hoping to bring in a few college players as well, but she is still trying to get a firm commitment from them.

“We teach them how to catch, throw, field, what the fundamentals of softball are,” Howard said. “We will have some base running skills and defense for the older kids. We’re going over some defensive play … how to situationally hit.

“That’s a big thing,” she added.

Players will be divided by age groups.

“I’ll be working it,” Howard said. “Other coaches will be working it. We’ve got a couple of the girls that work great with little kids, so I think that will go really well. They’re going to learn how to just swing, throw and catch.”

The younger players will hit off a tee. Howard said they won’t try to teach the smallest campers any finer points of hitting. The skills of hand placement in the swing, shifting weight and driving through the ball will be stressed as the players reach seven or eight.

“When you go into the developmental phase, (that’s) where you start teaching them a stance, a bat path, contact, extension,” Howard said. “These are the things that you need to do to capitalize and become an above-average hitter.

“At 4 and 5 (years old) it’s here’s the ball, here’s the bat. I want you guys to have fun. I want you to hit the ball and see what it looks like,” she added.

Pitching skills will be taught to those 8 and older as Howard believes that’s the best age to start grooming a player for the position.

“We’re going to go fundamentals hard on 8-year-olds if they want to be a pitcher,” Howard said. “I’m signing you up.”

One of the goals of the camp is to give the Lady Bulldog softball program more visibility in the community.

“It’s a huge, huge thing of building enthusiasm that I don’t think has been focused on the past,” Howard said. “I think me having a relationship with the little kids is a big deal. I want to establish that relationship with the little kids, that this is a community of softball where we all have fun.

“I’m trying to get my girls out in the community, my parents in the community, myself in the community and get butts in the seats,” she added. “I want people in these seats watching Crestview softball. I want this to become something that people go to on Friday nights or Tuesday nights to watch.”

For more information about the camp, visit the Crestview softball page on Facebook where you will find a registration form.