CRAFTSBURY – The Craftsbury Academy (CA) softball team has a new head coach in Rileigh Fortin as they kicked off their Mountain League schedule earlier this week.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Fortin, a former player from North Country, replaces Ashley Gravel after seven seasons at CA. Despite pooling players from Hazen Union in a cooperative the past few seasons, the Charger program has struggled with consistent participation numbers and results. CA won 14 games under Gravel in the last four seasons combined, had their last playoff win four years ago and bottomed out with only a single win last spring. Fortin has encouraging numbers to work with in her first season, with six players from CA and nine from Hazen Union practicing. She realizes the challenges of trying to change the mindset of her young team, however.
“Ashley had reached out to me about the position opening up when she knew she was stepping away to be more involved with family. I was very interested and excited to get the opportunity for my first head coaching job at the varsity level. Our biggest goal this year is to make continuous improvements. I hope to adjust some of the mindsets the girls have and give them confidence in their abilities. The girls have been working well together, and we have a lot of potential on this team,” said Fortin.
The Chargers lost just two seniors to graduation from last year’s team (Libby Bowley, Savanah Boyce), but Boyce was a workhorse in the circle the last two seasons and will be a big hole to fill for Fortin. She’ll lean on her returning seniors for leadership, led by Adelina Augsberger and Alex Bingham, who earned All-Mountain League honors last season. Fortin also has a sizeable returning core with varsity experience who also earned All-Mountain League honors in Gracie Crown, Ada Allen and Eva Small. Augsberger and Crown earned Second Team honors as utility players last spring and will give Fortin and the Chargers versatility defensively.
“Adelina and the seniors, along with Gracie, are who we’ll be looking for to lead the girls. Once we get acclimated to game speed outside and get our fundamentals down, I have a lot of faith in how we will continue to grow this season,” said Fortin.
CA was scheduled to open its season against Blue Mountain on Tuesday. They’ll stay at Dustan Field for a pair of match-ups against Winooski on Thursday and Paine Mountain on Saturday to wrap up a busy week.
