BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

EDGARD-First year head coach, relatively unknown program, no feeder school with softball program.

It’s not the things that you are looking for when picking out how to begin a program.

However, West St. John Head Coach Brandon Dumas has dealt with whatever was thrown his way this season with professionalism and it has shown.

The first-year Head Coach has a trying season in 2005. While the wins were as plentiful as the losses, the Lady Rams gave it there all every game and never quit to the pleasure of the coaching staff, parents and fans.

Finishing up the season on Tuesday against St. Martin’s, the Lady Rams of West St. John were defeated 18-1.

The 17-run loss to St. Martin’s means that West St. John concluded the season with a 2-13 overall record and did not have a win in 10 district 10-2A games.

Some of the bright spots for Dumas’ squad and the Lady Rams fans were the play of second baseman Rici Roussel and third baseman Sharday Howard.

Two of the better hitters on the squad, Roussel hit over .300 for the Lady Rams in limited action and Howard led the team with a batting average of over .430.

Meanwhile in the circle, Malika Gautheir pitched every game except the first two of the season for West St. John.

Although her 2-11 record in the circle may signify that she struggled in the circle, Gautheir did record over 40 strikeouts on the season.

The future is bright for the Rams as Dumas’ squad only loses only four seniors and only three starters from this year’s squad.

“With the kids that we had coming back we did have some big expectations,” the first-year head coach said. “It just did not go our way this season. We have the talent to win games and I think we will have a much better season next year.

“I think we can get a little better in the hitting department and get a little stronger on the weights. Our fielding also needs to improve because we gave up a lot of unearned runs on errors this season.”

One of the biggest improvements will be the implementation of a softball program at the feeder schools of West St. John.

“No other of our feeder schools had softball programs,” Dumas said. “But that is changing and hopefully soon so high school won’t be the first time these girls play softball. Other schools don’t have that problem and it shows on the high school level thanks to experience.”