Parks girls’ softball had their senior night against New Prague May 16. 

Despite a 18-5 loss, the focus wasn’t on the game. The seniors said they will miss the team and playing for Park when they graduate in under a month.

Varsity coach Chris Gabler said the seniors have persevered and showed younger players how to push through despite the odds.

“They’ve been through the best and the worst of the program,” Gabler said. “They’ve shown to never give up and to just keep playing.”

Senior Sadie Lund said she hopes she fulfilled her captain role for the team.

“I was able to be a good role model because they voted me for captain,” Lund said. “I did a good job with keeping energy up and keeping everyone positive.”

Senior Kamryn Halley said she is going to miss the Park community.

“I’ll miss the community the most,” Halley said. “I’ve grown up playing softball since I was seven and I’ve played with the same girls throughout, so it’ll be a bummer not seeing them everyday anymore.”

Gabler said coaching the seniors for three years has given him a chance to see them grow.

“From when I first saw them play until now, it’s like night and day,” Gabler said. “I’ve coached for 38 years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid improve more in three years than Sam Meyer. Kam is such a leader too, Sadie and Sophia, they’re all such good kids.”

Lund said she has high hopes for the remainder of the season.

“We’ll only continue to get better,” Lund said. “We started off kind of rough but we’ve only gotten better, so it’ll keep going that way.”

Halley said she has faith in the team’s ability for sections.

“We have a week left of regular season games and then we start sections next Monday,” Halley said. “I feel pretty confident in our abilities to do well in sections and hopefully at least make it to the final and I want us to show out for some of our last year.”

The next girls’ softball game is against Orono at 4:30 p.m. May 19 at Orono Middle School.