Assistant coach George takes over Scorpions softball

WINDOW ROCK
The Farmington Scorpions stayed in-house when it named three-year assistant Isaiah George as the new head coach for its softball program.

The Farmington Diné was hired last month, and he will take over a program that returns all but one player from last year’s team that made the Class 5A playoffs.

“It’s exciting; it’s a great opportunity,” George said. “I’m very excited about having a great group of young ladies that we’ve been developing for the past few years.

“We competed last year at state, and we only graduated one senior,” he added. “We got a few juniors that are going to step up to the plate this year and we’re going to be led by a great group of young athletes, man, so that’s awesome.”

Before taking over the helm, George served under then-head coach Tim Trotter, who gave his blessing.

“He’s a great hire for the program,” Trotter said in a text message.

“You know, Tim gave me an opportunity to coach a few years ago,” George said. “I got on when the pandemic hit, but I stuck around, and I learned some great things under him.”

Although he was hired last month, George spent plenty of time working with his team during the offseason.

“Before I was hired, I took over the summer program,” he said. “We competed in the summer league here in Farmington and we ended up winning the Philana Thompson Summer Blast in the 18U group, so that was pretty cool.”

The Four Corners Fastpitch Association puts up the summer league and tournament and, in the finals, it came down to the Lady Scorps and nearby rival Piedra Vista, the reserve 5A state champions.

“That was pretty cool to compete against them,” he said of the PV team that is headed by longtime coach Kevin Werth.

“Coach Werth is a good friend of mine,” George said. “We usually play each other in the fall and to me it’s a culture of iron sharpens iron. Overall, I think it’s better for the community when we play each other.”

The new Scorpions head coach said they’re going to compete in a few tournaments in the fall in preparation for the spring 2024 season. George said he’s going to have the same expectations as they had the past few years.

“We’re going to continue to work hard,” he said. “We’ve developed a culture of working hard and just staying together whether it be summer, spring or fall.

“The family part is going to be a big portion of what I’m going to push for,” George said. “We’re going to stay together, keep developing and keep competing. That’s the main point that I want to preach to them.”

This past spring, the Lady Scorps entered the 5A state playoffs as the No. 11 seed and they advanced into the double-elimination portion of the tournament with a wild 25-22 win over No. 7 Albuquerque Volcano Vista on the road.

Farmington then faced district nemesis La Cueva as the Albuquerque powerhouse school run-ruled the Scorps 10-0 before it came up short to No. 7 Cibola, 8-5, in the elimination game.

“They were our Achilles heels throughout our district,” George said of La Cueva.

The first-year coach acknowledged the uphill battle of competing against some of the 5A elites that includes defending state champ Carlsbad, Las Cruces Centennial, La Cueva and Piedra Vista.

“They’re all up there,” George said. “Every year it’s always a battle but I’m not going to worry too much about that. I love my team and I’m just looking forward to just trusting the process.

“The goal is to get better, so I’m not too worried about who’s out there,” he added.

To get to that elite level, George said they need to shore up a few things, particularly their energy level.

“I’ve noticed that our energy level is not up to par,” he said. “We kind of had an energy rollercoaster throughout last season where we either got too high or too low.

“We got to correct that, but the main thing is we got to keep them athletically fit to compete,” George added. “We just got to keep them resilient and not have them gas out.”

And although he’s going to have a young squad next spring, George said he’s really impressed with how far they’ve come as a group.

“We’re young,” he said. “Some of them are jumping from 14U straight into New Mexico 5A softball. It’s quite a big jump, but those kids have handled it well. It’s gonna be exciting to watch them in the future.”

Currently, the Scorps have two pitchers in their rotation headed by incoming freshman Ashlynn Sandoval and soon-to-be senior Legend Otero.

“She’s our ace pitcher,” George said of Sandoval. “She’s gonna keep developing and keep getting better. We’re going to have Legend Otero help pitch. She helped us with our rotation last year.”

As for offense, George believes his entire team are proficient hitters.

“More than anything, we scored up a lot of balls and we put the ball in play,” George said. “When we played Volcano Vista it came down to a scoring battle. This is a team that during the summer we put up a massive amount of runs and scored up a lot of balls.”

George said they elevated that aspect thanks to getting reps at the Strike Zone Hitting Academy in Farmington

“That was our hitting domain,” he said. “Being able to hit before games and just hitting during the summer has really helped us in that respect.”

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