It was all a product of design.
Holtville softball coach Reese Claybrook knew that if his team wanted to make waves in the postseason, it needed to use the regular season to do so. After carefully constructing the schedule to face off against some of the best teams in the state, Holtville finished the year with a 23-16-1 record.
The Bulldogs returned the regular season Class 5A Area 5 title back to Slapout while also taking the top spot in the area tournament. All collimating in them narrowly missing out on a bid to the state tournament in a loss to Beauregard by one run. For his efforts this season, Claybrook is the 2025 Elmore County Softball Coach of the Year.
“Our schedule this year, man was a gauntlet,” Claybrook said. “We knew it's kind of what we needed to be able to make the run in the postseason that we were able to do. My biggest takeaway from the season is, yes, you have your Bailea Boone’s, who put up your record-breaking stats every year. But it was from every girl we have on the team. All of them played a vital role. Every single person touched the field and played meaningful innings throughout the playoffs.”
It’s that level of impact throughout the entire lineup that made Holtville such a successful team. Claybrook knew his girls had trust in one another and with the coaching, to make whatever plays were needed to come out on top.
“Every single player on our team is capable of making the play that changes the outcome of the game,” Claybrook said. “But none of them are expected to make the play that changes the outcome of the game. They trust each other to have each other's back, they trust each other to put the team in the best situation to succeed, and they're able to have that trust because they know the work that everybody puts in.”
During the regular season, Holtville faced off against four eventual state champions — taking home wins over two. Of course, the team would celebrate those victories, but Claybrook was more impressed with how his team responded after the losses. He keyed on one instance early in the season.
“It was pretty early in the season,” Claybrook said “We played a game and lost pretty handily. We didn't play our best, and we turned around the next night and are playing Prattville. We give up five (runs) in the first and we just steadily chip away and end up winning the game. I think it was 15-11, to win the game by several runs, and just seeing that there was no quit in our girls that they understood it was a big task at hand, but they weren't going to back down from those challenges.”
Holtville will lose some key pieces from this year's team as they head into next season, but Claybrook knows their fingerprints will be left on the program for years to come. The big thing for the team next year will be continuing that success with a new wave of players stepping into key roles both on the field and in the leadership category.
“(The seniors) they've left their mark,” Claybrook said. “And that's the biggest thing that I want to see from this group coming up is kind of continuing the legacy of those before them. Playing, as we put it — Holtville softball. So playing with a high intensity, attention to detail, doing the small things the right way, and just having a passion for the game and seeing success, both on and off the field.”
