Show Sports ports New Coach Same Results Eric Larson Sports How does a new coach improve a team that finished sixth in the nation That was the challenge for first year Softball coach MaryKay Amicone Amicone felt strongly her team had the talent to challenge challenge challenge chal chal- lenge for the national championship championship championship cham cham- this year With only one week left to play in the regular season Amicone is finding more believers with every win They have all the athleticism athleticism athleticism cism they need to be at the top Amicone said before the season started With all the talent Amicone knew the key to her teams team's success would be chemistry We have to have good chemistry she said The chemistry didn't look good early for Playing in the Yuma tournament tournament tournament ment to start out the season the Lady Bruins limped through the tournament with two wins two losses and one tie While this may have raised concerns with fans Amicone knew there could be bean bean bean an adjustment for her new team she just didn't know how long Following the Yuma tournament tournament tournament tour tour- traveled to St. St George to play in the Ice IceBreaker IceBreaker IceBreaker Breaker tournament Amicone didn't have much time to make changes but whatever she did worked as won their two games by a combined score of 21 4 Fortunately for Amicone and that was just the beginning Since the rough start the Lady Bruins Bruin's have gone 33 3 giving them a 5 35 record overall and are currently currently currently cur cur- ranked fourth in hi the polls Despite the great record had only a four game lead of rival Dixie for the conference championship with eight games left to play In addition to the four game lead final eight games are against North Idaho College who have a 25 22 overall record and conference dweller celler-dweller Community College of Southern Nevada who has only five wins all season This puts Amicone's team in great shape to clinch the number one seed in the region tournament the first week in May Despite their success the S Sv 4 v eE s 4 t o oen en f CIS 1 J J j f iL t W s First year softball coach MaryKay Amicone has her team rolling through the competition Lady Bruins set out to accomplish more than just winning the conference title They have their sites set on the national tournament held in Clermont Fl from May 19 needs to be careful not to look to far ahead If the Lady Bruins should look past the region tournament and get upset early they could wind up not even earning a aspot aspot aspot spot in the national ment We hope to build on national experience Amicone said Since before the season even started Amicone has been counting on last seasons season's seasons season's seasons season's sea sea- sons son's success to keep her team focused through this season So far it has worked |