Washington softball taking another step forward

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Erin Jones wants a winner. And more.

'I envision a dynasty here someday,” said the first-year head softball coach at Cedar Rapids Washington. 'I want to be competitive with the Jeffersons and the Xaviers of Cedar Rapids.

'I want us to show up and the other team to say to themselves, ‘Oh, no. We've got to play the Warriors.'”

Dynasties aren't built in a day. But the Warriors are taking Step No. 2 in that direction.

Step No. 1 came last year, in what appeared to be just another dead-end season.

After starting 2-16, the Warriors won 12 of their final 21 games to gain repectability and gather momentum.

Fanaye Wooldrik stepped down after the season and after several years as an assistant, Jones felt she was ready to keep the program moving upward.

'I e-mailed (athletics director Paul James) right away,” said Jones, who played for a winner at Cedar Rapids Jefferson. 'I really wanted this.”

Washington (9-4 overall, 6-4 MVC) built a nine-game win streak before suffering a pair of losses to Cedar Rapids Prairie on Tuesday.

'We've picked up where we left off last year,” Jones said. 'A lot of the kids played club ball. We didn't have to start at square one.”

Jones has made some tweaks. The Warriors don't use pitching machines in practice. Instead, the pitchers throw. And so does Jones.

The roster is still small - just 18 girls are out in grades 8-12 - but the quality is the best it's been in a long time.

Washington's last winning season (30-11) came in 1999. Since then, there have been a lot of single-digit win totals before last year's late breakthrough.

Sophomore Payton Bruner (4-1) and freshman Emily Oler (3-2) have carried the pitching load.

Oler also represents the top power threat, with four home runs and 16 RBIs.

Of the top six hitters, five are sophomores or younger.

SCHUCHMANN'S FUTURE: ‘NOT UP TO ME'

Kevin Schuchmann wants to coach next year, preferably at West Delaware.

'I love coaching, and I love coaching these kids,” he said Monday after the Hawks split a double-header with Mount Vernon. 'I'm happy here, and there's some more nice talent coming up.

'But it's not up to me.”

Schuchmann, 55, has accepted an early-retirement package from teaching. As a result, he'll have to reapply for the coaching job he has held in Manchester for the past 11 seasons.

'There's something to be said for having a coach on staff in the building, and if that's the direction they want to go, I understand,” he said.

Schuchmann has crafted a 370-108 mark at West Delaware, piloting the Hawks to the 2007 Class 3A state championship. He is 806-426 in 29 years overall.

This year's team is 11-2 and ranked 11th in 4A.

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