Reem Abdalazem | Staff Reporter
Posted June 10, 2014; 10:00 a.m.

Women’s softball head coach, Don Loberg, finished his ninth season with a great attitude and a well-supported program for the lady lions’ upcoming seasons. Along with his coaching staff, Kristen Austin and Lauri Kaminski, Loberg started a softball camp at the Lou Brock Sports Complex, the home for the Lindenwood baseball and softball programs.

The camp involved girls of various ages who had the chance to be part of a three hour softball practice session. The camp took place from Tuesday, June 3, until Thursday, where a total of 20 girls practiced at different times. Girls from fifth to eighth grade came from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. while the older girls came from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Since it is the first year that Coach Loberg started this camp as a fundraiser for his upcoming season, he said he is very happy with the amount of girls who have joined. He said he believes it’s a very good recruiting method as well as girls have the opportunity to not only hear about Lindenwood’s softball team, but also practice with some of them players.

“Three of these girls are actually seniors in high school and are strongly considering coming to Lindenwood next year. It’s great because we get to see them play and do things here while getting to knowing them,” Loberg said.

Each day there were new drills for the girls to practice while using various techniques and learning to use different muscles. Loberg said that the main drills they do vary from throwing and hitting the balls. There are other drills like running and learning the mechanics of swinging properly.

“Because throwing takes a lot of arm strength, we do “long tossing” in between drills to get their arms to throw further,” Loberg said.

According to Loberg, Softball is a sport that requires mostly a “desire to play” and “knowledge of the sport.” Loberg and his assistant coaches make it possible for passionate softball players to expand their knowledge and better their skills.