SOUTH ROYALTON — The black and white uniforms are gone, as is the temporary Mountaineer nickname. But White River Valley’s softball team is bringing in plenty of talent and experience in its inaugural season from last year’s Whitcomb-Rochester cooperative. This isn’t like any new program starting from scratch. It’s up to Whitcomb alumna and former Whitchester assistant coach Sandy Gates to help the Wildcats pick up where the Mountaineers left off.
Gates, a 2005 graduate who spent two seasons playing third base for St. Lawrence University, worked for three seasons as an assistant under veteran softball boss Ray Colton, who coached Whitcomb for 18 years before mentoring the co-op with neighboring Rochester starting in 2016. Gates put in for the White River Valley job, she said, because of what she knew was coming: a dominant pitching tandem in Chelsie Trask and Fiona Vaillancourt, a solid hitter in Toni Turner and a returning freshman in Emily Bean, all coming off of a VPA Division IV state championship in a come-from-behind 8-7 victory over Proctor in Whitchester’s second trip to the final in as many seasons.
A chance to continue working with the same girls was too good to pass up.
“It’s nice to have them coming in with that experience. They’re so young,” said Gates, who coached at the New Hampton (N.H.) School prior to her time with Whitchester. “It’s great having that mentality. They know what it takes to get there and lose. They built on that; they know what it’s like to get there and win. The important part is they know how to work to get that. … Hopefully the girls feed off of that.”
Whitchester went 36-12 — 5-2 in the tournament — in its three seasons in existence, capping it off with Whitcomb’s first softball title since 2004 and Rochester’s first since 2011. Both schools were consolidated due to Act 46; Whitcomb’s students merged with South Royalton to form White River Valley, which opened its doors last fall. The Wildcats play in D-III, up a division where Whitchester won last spring.
Much of Whitchester’s success came from the circle, with Vaillancourt and Trask — both freshmen at the time — sharing the pitching duties. Trask said after the final that she hoped the new White River Valley coach would deploy the tandem with a similar strategy, using both pitchers in the same game.
One year later, she’s still excited about that one-two punch.
“I’m still looking forward to it, I think it’ll still work,” Trask said. “We have more pitchers now. If we’re both just off or if we’re winning by a lot or losing by a lot, it’s nice to be able to get a break. … We’ll see. Being up a division is definitely going to be a challenge, but I think we can do it.”
Trask added that her bond with Vaillancourt extends to outside the softball season, as well, even if the game is always being discussed.
“We talk about softball all the time,” she said. “College, we both watch the World Series; we talk about other high schools. We play on a travel team all year round. We’re always playing softball. We’re always together.”
South Royalton finished its final season at 6-8 last spring, falling Poultney in the first round of the D-IV playoffs. Paige Ballentine, a junior last season, brings the most pitching experience to the squad; Blake Southworth, Taylor Rogers and Ashleigh Brown — all freshman a year ago — also saw time in the circle for the Royals.
The two teams played each other twice in the regular season last year, the final meetings in a long history of contests between the neighbors. It’s a rivalry that Gates, who pitched during her time at Whitcomb, knows all too well.
Now that it’s over, Gates will spend her season trying to merge two young programs into one. Luckily for her, one side of the combination is entering the spring with winning expectations.
“It’s an extremely young team overall, which is great,” Gates said. “I think them being young and having those leadership skills, I’ll definitely lean on that. But I think there are equally talented on the South Royalton side. It’s just a question of getting to know them. … I will say, across the board, the Bethel girls, the South Royalton girls, they’re competitors.
“You couldn’t ask for a more athletic group.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.