Coach Thoughts: Rhonda Revelle on the 2016 Season

 

1) What excites you the most when you think about the team taking the field for the first time on Friday?

"We are most excited about the opportunity to take our preparation out to the playing field. Our players ended the season last year feeling as if we had improved a lot, but hungry for more. They have been training with purposeful intention, and it is time to play ball!"

2) With four returning first-team all-region players, five returning all-conference performers and one returning All-American, this is a talented team. How would you rate the talent on this year's team and what is the potential of this group?

"This is a talented team, both athletically and emotionally. We believe our leadership, our talent and our desire to be a very strong team will be the driving force for a successful season. We have a nucleus of players who have performed well and been very productive on a consistent basis throughout their career. We anticipate that we will get high level performances out of many this year, and that will turn in to favorable results more often than not for the Huskers."

3) You bring back 16 players from last year's roster, the most returning players you've had in your 24 seasons, yet 10 of your 19 players are freshmen or sophomores. Do you consider this team to be a veteran team or a young team and what are the challenges that come with mixing a strong core of experienced players with a large group of underclassmen?

"We consider this year’s team a veteran team with a splash of youth. Our catching position is the position with the least amount of collegiate game experience, but Madi (Unzicker) and Bri (Cassidy) both have worked their tails off to get themselves ‘game ready.’ The nice thing is that everywhere we have youth, we have a veteran right next to them to guide them. The catchers have a very veteran infield to lean on, the other outfielders have Kiki (Stokes) to lead them and the pitchers who don’t have a lot of collegiate experience have Emily (Lockman) right there next to them. We have been really impressed with how the older players are mentoring and guiding the younger players. We love seeing this kind of nurturing taking place as the bedrock of our culture."

4) Heading into the season, what do you expect the strength of this year's team to be?

"We believe the strength of this year’s team will be the TEAM. They have a vision of what they want it to look like, feel like and how they want it to play out on the field. In order to make that vision a reality, we all have to do our part. And, that means everyone has different parts and roles to play. We are committed to embracing those roles and being the very best at whatever the team needs the most from us."

 
5) The 2016 season will be a success if....?

"This year will be successful if…we meet our 2 goals! 1) to be and do our very best…TODAY.  2) to be the very best team mate that we are capable of being…TODAY."