LITHIA, FL - Stop by a Newsome softball practice sometime - there’s games, music, and plenty of laughter. If you stick around long enough, you’ll see the wolves mean business.

“It’s a balance,” says senior catcher Lydia Castro. “We have a great time, we get to listen to music, but we also work very hard.”

“We come here, we roll through practice, and we go in and roll through the schedule,” Junior pitcher Kelsey Winters said.

That’s pretty much what Newsome has done this season. Practice, play, win, repeat.

“They’re very focused and very determined,” said Newsome head coach, and alum, Ally Ledenham. “The best part about this group is how well they gel together.”

The Wolves’ roster is deep: as in 20 players deep. It makes every rep in every practice that much more important.

“I think we all challenge each other during practice especially to get playing time in games,” said freshman shortstop Karley Shelton. “Your opponent is right next to you and you’re like ‘we need to get this work done, we need to do our best’ so we can see time on the field.”

“We have great competition, we push each other every day and that’s what leads to our success,” said Castro.

This season holds special meaning for Newsome. The pandemic took away spring sports last year. That meant the Wolves had to hang on to a painful memory even longer.

“We ended the 2019 season losing in the state championship game,” said Ledenham, who was just weeks into her stint as interim head coach at the time.

Newsome fell 3-2 in extra innings to Lake Worth-Park Vista.

“I was (in the state final) my sophomore year and it was not fun to lose,” said Castro.

Newsome will face a challenging road in the playoffs, where nothing is guaranteed. But the Wolves aren’t afraid of high expectations.

“There’s the obvious goal of a state championship,” said Winters.

“We want another shot at that game,” said Ledenham.

Newsome found perspective when COVID-19 took away their season. The Wolves are hungry to reach to top. They feel they were denied that opportunity in 2020.

“This is now our new comeback year,” said Ledenham.