<b>Coach:</b> Suzy Willemssen, third season (10-30)
<b>2007 Record: </b>6-14
<b>Key Losses:</b> P Courtney Temple
<b>Key Players:</b> P Korrie Simons, SR; SS Megan Fouse, JR; C Sarah Prosser, JR; 3B Shannon Dooley, JR; 1B Jill Comer, JR; 2B Rachel Cronin, SO.
<b>Quotable:</b> “We just want to be scrappy and let our passion and joy for the game shine through. Everything else will take care of itself.” – Chantilly head coach Suzy Willemssen
<b>Outlook:</b> Fielding a team comprised of mostly sophomores last year, Chantilly head coach Suzy Willemssen knew that the Chargers’ 2007 season was going to be interesting.
“We were so young and inexperienced,” she said. “We try to explain to them their first year of varsity and what it is like, but they really need to experience it. This isn’t your mom’s slow-pitch in the backyard.”
The Chargers took a pounding in the stacked Concorde District, finishing with a 1-11 district record. The good news is that those Chargers sophomores now have a full year under their belt, the bad news is that the dreaded term, “rebuilding year” may still be applicable.
“Last year, they were pretty much JV players. A year of varsity under their belt and we know what we need to do to compete in our district and we are just doing our best to do that,” said Willemssen, who agreed that this season could be described as the second year of a three-year plan to bring back the Chantilly softball program.
That doesn’t mean the Willemssen thinks her Chargers couldn’t rack up some wins.
"This year, hopefully we can surprise some people,” she said. “We just want to be scrappy and let our passion and joy for the game shine through. Everything else will take care of itself. We just hope that we can keep it close with our pitching and defense and scratch out some runs and get a couple of wins.”