Rehobeth’s Courtney Cherry, Northview’s Jessice Noble lead softball in Wiregrass

Player of the Year—Courtney Cherry
Background: A senior shortstop for Rehobeth who signed with Troy University last fall. Cherry was named the Dothan Eagle softball player of the year for the second time in three years.

The Numbers: Cherry hit .426 (72-of-169) with a Wiregrass high 8 homers. She also drove in 29 runs, scored 39,  hit 17 doubles and two triples and had 26 stolen bases. She was also walked 21 times and reached base 100 times. Defensively, she was a smooth shortstop with good range and strong arm, making only two errors.

Cherry on player of year award: “It feels like a big accomplishment to do this for the second time in my high school career.”

On preseason goals: “I wanted to get stronger and to have one more season of having fun. I knew it would be the last year to get to play with this group of players and I just wanted to play my best, give it my all, and have fun with them.”

On her season: “I think I had a great year. Defensively I made only two errors and my batting average was the highest it has been, so I think I improved tremendously.”

On her biggest attribute: “Definitely defense. You never know what is going to happen out there. It is a bigger surprise than offense. Range is definitely my strength (on defense).”

Rehobeth head coach Summer Chandler on Cherry: “Courtney has been a leader for us since her ninth grade year. What can’t I say about her? She does everything well — offense, defense, base stealing. She has been so important to us. She was the foundation of building this program. Courtney Cherry is irreplaceable. You can’t replace her. Obviously, our team will miss her, but I will miss her as a person too. She has been a good kid and a good leader. Forget the numbers, she is one of those kids you want on the team as a person.”

Coach of the Year—Jessica Noble
Background: Former Enterprise High and Enterprise State (now Enterprise-Ozark Community College) standout was in her fifth year at Northview after earning her degrees from Troy University.

The Numbers: Noble guided Northview to within a win of the Class 6A state championship game, finishing in third-place. She also guided the Cougars (38-16) to a fast-pitch school record for wins plus postseason tournament titles in highly-competitive Class 6A, Area 7 and at the Class 6A South Central Region. Overall in five years, Noble has lead NHS to an 148-92 record in five years and two state appearances.

Noble on coach of year award: “I am honored by it. There are so many good coaches in the area, so to get it is a honor. A lot of credit goes to my players and my coaching staff. I know it is an individual award, but I feel there are many more people that are a part of it.”

On preseason expectations: “I expected us to make the playoffs (regionals). The girls wanted something different. They wanted to go to state. They felt they had the potential to go beyond and that is what they had in mind from July 2008 when we started summer workouts.”

Season’s key point: “Our turning point was when we had four games in four days and we didn’t play real well ... we had a sit down and talked about that certain things had to happen if we were going to go to state. We were not taking advantage of when we got runners in scoring position. I am not necessarily talking about RBI hits, but putting the ball in play to the right side to move runners. Once they saw the importance of that, they started executing better.”

On key to the team’s success: “Team chemistry and leadership. We had three great seniors who showed a lot of leadership. They are the ones last July that said this is what we want to do. If we don’t have that leadership, third place in state doesn’t happen.”