2023 Fall High School Sports Preview: Family ties help North Central slowpitch celebrate victories big and small

For some high school sports programs in the Greater Spokane League, success is measured in state playoff appearances and league titles. For others, it’s in the incremental improvement leading to more wins than the previous year.

Last week at practice, North Central slowpitch softball coach Chris Lester was cheering on from the pitching circle when one of her least experienced players made contact on a foul ball after several swings and misses.

Lester has a couple of players with experience on her squad of 22, with at least one with aspirations of playing fastpitch at the next level. But she also has several that have never played a sport before, much less softball.

It can be a labor of love integrating novice players onto a varsity team.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges that we have – and have had in the program since I started here seven years ago – is finding a balance to make sure we’re teaching fundamentals, but also elevating the games of others,” Lester said.

“Our team, we want to win,” junior Isabella Lowman, one of the most experienced players on the roster, said. “But at the same time, if we lose or win, we’re here to have fun and learn.”

Lester uses the more experienced players as coaches on the field to help the novice players gain insight to the game. Lester’s program has sent players to Western Washington University and Community Colleges of Spokane in recent seasons.

“We’re looking for leaders and teachers. When we have students that are at that level … we’ll ask them to teach a drill. We use them as mentors and role models.

“How are we helping other women help each other?”

Still, there’s a lot of hands-on coaching teaching fundamentals, jargon and rules to nearly one-third of her roster.

“We’re starting from the very beginning,” Lester said. “Like, we have six players who have never even played at all before this year. We have to break everything down back to the basic beginning fundamentals. Like, how do you hold a bat? Where do you stand? How are you going to swing? What do you do after you make contact?

“Every single part of the swing and where you’re at and where you go after you get the ball has to be taught.”

Yet, when one of the novices’ faces lights up on a swing with solid contact, Lester lights up too.

It’s little victories like that where success is measured for a program that went winless last season.

“It’s really fun to see when they do get that contact,” Lester said. “They have so much pride. ‘Oh, I hit it! Now I get to go to first!’ And so, it brings us a lot of joy as a team and as coaches to see that they’re improving, and they know they’re improving, and their hard work is paying off.”

It something of a mantra that the coaches at North Central must adopt to build programs, better athletes and involved community members.

“We care about their development as players and people and they belong somewhere here in our community,” Lester said. “We’re here for them. And wherever you’re at, whatever level – and I think that’s one of the greatest things about playing at NC – you can come here and be on a team. If you’ve never played before, you have coaches across this entire building that will help you learn a sport.”

One of the big things that brings joy to this year’s version of the Wolfpack is the familial bonds on the team. Many teams or coaches like to think of their group as a family, but NC is taking it to a different level this season – three sets of sisters populate the roster, from the most experienced on the team to the least.

Harmoni and Arayah Rosehill, Zoe and Abigail Nowaski, and Isabella and Aubrie Lowman help form the glue that holds this team together, measuring victories not in wins and losses, but in those incremental successes as players of all skill levels begin grow into a unit.

“I think it really speaks to our program and what (assistant coach) Angela (Williams) and I want to do is make sure people feel invited, and that we’re part of a community. If your sisters are home but they’re not doing anything else, and they’re at NC also, let’s get them out. They are going home saying ‘Hey, this is great. You need to come and be a part of this.’

“I also take a lot of pride in that, that it means enough to them that they want to bring other family members in and that they know that their family, no matter what level they come in at, are welcome on this field.”

Harmoni Rosehill, a sophomore infielder whose first season was last year, was named captain of the team recently. “I cheer a lot and I’m super supportive,” she said.

She talked her sister, senior Arayah, into coming out for the team this year. It’s the first time Arayah, a self-confessed “major Dungeons and Dragons nerd,” has played a sport of any kind.

“She just started, but I feel like it’s a lot of fun to watch her grow and see how she’s learning everything, and being able to help her myself,” Harmoni said.

“(Harmoni) was like, ‘It’s your senior year, you should do a sport,’ ” Arayah said. “So, I did.”

Arayah likes that the program and players have been so supportive.

“From the time I’ve been here, I’ve been getting a good little family vibe. People pick on each other, but it’s in a good way.”

Sophomore Zoe Nowaski is back for her second season at first base and outfield. She didn’t play softball until her freshman year and plays on the fastpitch team, too.

“I think it’s pretty cool there are so many sisters,” Zoe said. “We all get to grow together.”

Her big sister, Abigail, is a senior out for softball the first time but runs track in the spring. “My whole family is into baseball and softball,” she said. “I figured, ‘Why not?’ Just wanted to make memories with my sister in my last year of high school.”

Sophomore Aubrie Lowman is in her second year on the team and is also a competitive cheerleader. She’ll probably try out for fastpitch in the spring.

Her sister, Isabella, got Aubrie out for the team. “It’s nice we can practice at home together,” Aubrie said.

Isabella is a pitcher, catcher and shortstop and with two years’ experience, one of the more accomplished players on the team.

“I help a lot of the new players out a lot because they are still learning and they all look up to me,” she said.

“It’s pretty neat,” Lester said of all the newcomers. “It’s a special thing about our program is that you get a chance to letter and play on a varsity team.”