CLC Season Preview
Posted March 23, 2015
College Softball: Raiders feature many new faces
One thing is certain. There are a lot of new faces on the Central Lakes College Raiders softball team this spring including first-year head coach Don Tizzano who is experiencing a homecoming of sorts.
Sophomore infielder/pitcher Kristen Gottfredson from Little Falls is the lone returning player from last year and even assistant coach Ray Austin is new to the program after serving as an assistant coach under head coach for Mike Zauhar last year for the Brainerd Warriors.
"After I graduated from high school in Arizona, I came up here to visit friends who lived on Nokay Lake," said Tizzano. "I came up in the summer and I was like, this is gorgeous, I'm gonna stay. And then winter hit, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' But by that time I had started school at what was then Brainerd Community College and I had made a lot of friends. I actually met my wife here at the college."
One of the friends he met in 1993 was Austin with whom he played for two years on the Raiders baseball team. Now they are teamed up again on a Raiders team.
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"I came up in the summer and I was like, this is gorgeous, I'm gonna stay. And then winter hit, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh!'- first-year head coach Don Tizzano.
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Originally from New York, Tizzano has lived in Arizona for the last 17 years, coaching high school varsity softball at Willow Canyon High School in Surprise, AZ, for the last eight years.
"My wife graduated from Pequot Lakes and wanted to come back," said Tizzano, "and I wanted to take the next step from coaching high school to college. I was fortunate to get this coaching job and also a job teaching special ed at Pequot Lakes."
Tizzano concedes that it has been a slow and challenging start with only one returning player. He arrived in Minnesota last summer after the softball season was over for the college and area school teams.
"When Ray and I first started in the fall, we had three kids come out for our first fall practice," Tizzano said. "So we started sending out email blasts, hung posters in the school and continuously talked to girls. We had four or five others that could have returned, but I don't know if the experience wasn't what they expected or why they decided not to come back.
"We'll be leaning heavily on our only returner (Gottfredson) to help us around the league because we don't know what we're preparing for - we're totally new at it."
The only other sophomore will be Crosby-Ironton grad and pitcher Kassandra Wisely who is transferring from Crown College near Minneapolis.
--- Roster ---
Sophomores
- Kristen Gottfredson, IF/P, Little Falls
- Kassandra Wisey, P, Crosby-Ironton
Freshmen
- Journee Howard, OF/IF, Pine River-Backus
- Jenny Skoog, IF/P, Menahga
- Kelsey Platz, OF/IF, Springfield
- Stephanie Arndt, IF/C, Lindstrom
- Kiana Edwards, OF, Fairbanks, AK
- Mackenzie Holst, C, Staples-Motley
- Melissa Svoboda, IF, Brainerd
- Lindsey Marcyes, OF, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle
- Faith Kassulker, OF, Brainerd
- Alex Palm, IF, Pequot Lakes
- Whitney Trebesh, IF, Morgan
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"Academically, she's eligible," said Tizzano. "We're just waiting on her official transcripts before she can play and apparently Crown College has been on spring break. We can't play her until we get that and we won't have her for our first six games, but hopefully we can get this straightened out before the real season starts."
The Raiders open with six games in two days Thursday and Friday, March 20-21, at the Irish Dome in Rosemount. Then it's on to a two-game tournament in Rochester March 28 before regular-season play starts April 8 when CLC hosts North Dakota State College of Science at 3:30 p.m.
Tizzano is looking forward to the challenge of coaching Minnesota.
"It's definitely different," he said. "I tell the girls that the difference between
you girls and the Arizona kids, it's not that they throw the ball harder, hit the ball further, or run faster, it's just that by the time they get to college, they've got 15,000 at bats under their belt and you girls might have 150.
"The biggest challenge is to get passion and fire in the girls and for them to learn it quickly. I don't think softball is the No. 1 sport for any of these girls. Because it's such a short season, we have to try to figure out what we're going to work on, and what these girls can absorb and apply to the field, so I am excited for that part.
"But, it's nerve-racking not really knowing what you're preparing for. That's the biggest obstacle. I have no idea (what these other teams) are going to throw against us. I don't know anything about these teams so these first six games are going to be really important for us."
--- Schedule ---
Mar. 19 vs. Ridgewater at Rosemount Irish Dome 7:15 a.m.
Mar. 19 vs. Rainy River at Irish Dome 9 a.m.
Mar. 19 vs. Minnesota West at Irish Dome 10:45 a.m.
Mar. 20 vs. Vermilion at Irish Dome 7:15 a.m.
Mar. 20 vs. Hibbing at Irish Dome 9 a.m.
Mar. 20 vs. Rainy River at Irish Dome 10:45 a.m.
Mar. 28 vs. Riverland at Rochester Tournament 5 p.m.
Mar. 28 vs. Rochester at Rochester Tournament 7 p.m.
April 8 N.D. State College of Science 3:30 p.m.
April 14 Vermilion at Ely 3 p.m.
April 18 Northland noon
April 19 at Hibbing noon
April 22 Mesabi 3 p.m.
April 25 Itasca at Grand Rapids noon
April 26 Fond Du Lac noon
April 28 Rainy River 3 p.m.
May 2-3 MCAC North Tournament TBA