They say players have adjusted well to the change
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – The Ocean City High School softball team has three new coaches this season. They hope the fact they are all former college softball players will help them with their new lineup.
“I think it benefits the girls that we have three former college players working together,” new head coach Keri Tricinelli said Friday afternoon after a game at Egg Harbor Township High School. “Being able to experience it and play in it and now being able to coach them through it helps a lot.”
Tricinelli is working with assistants Jess Fane and Arianna Segich. Segich starred for OCHS during her high school softball years. Tricinelli is taking over long-serving coach John Bruno, who retired after the 2019 season.
The coach said dealing with the COVID-19 protocols has made things different this season. “It’s been interesting to say the least,” she laughed.
“The girls have adjusted great to the new coaching staff. They’ve bought into the process that we’ve presented them so we couldn’t ask for anything else. We’ll keep on working hard every day,” Tricinelli said.
She noted there wasn’t much practice time in this delayed season.
“We went right into it. The girls put the work in over the wintertime on their own time. They’re friends and that’s important. It helped with the whole meshing process of it going into the season,” she said.
Asked about her philosophy of coaching, she said, “I think the best way to describe that is process over outcome. If we do the little things every day it should add up to the outcome that we’re looking for. Today wasn’t the best (a 10-0 loss to a strong Egg Harbor Township team), but it’s inevitable. I would say my philosophy is process over outcome and just work hard.”
The Red Raiders have a “strong core group of girls,” she said, half upperclassmen and half underclassmen. She said there wasn’t a specific leader.
“I think they all feed off each other. I don’t think there’s on specific person that we build around. I think everyone builds around each other,” she said.
The Red Raider lineup includes Cristina Barbella, Gabby Bowen, Nora Bridgeford, Sophia Cera, Natalia Cesari, Kailey Grimley, Brooke Groover-Illas, Kara Hender, Alex Illas, Anna McCable, Hailey Neville, Morgan Rocap and MacKenzie Segich.
Tricinelli said she hopes to always see steady improvement over the course of the season.
“I would like to make states and would like to have a higher than .500 season,” she said. ”For them we have mini-goals we make for them every week that we try to tackle and accomplish so I think that is working well. If we accomplish those goals I think we can make it to states.”
Tricinelli not only played softball in college, she said she also coached at the Division I, II and III levels in college and for a traveling organization. “And now I’m back in school,” she said. She said she and the other coaches have gelled “100 percent.”
