With the first pitch of Cambridge softball 10 days away, the Lady Bears' coaches and players have been hard at work this summer putting in the hours necessary to compete with the best of the best on the varsity level.

"It's been a great start for us with 25 to 30 girls out their working on conditioning, hitting and individual pitching drills with our pitching coach Sarah Macdonald," said Cambridge softball coach Aaron Archambeau, who previously worked as an assistant at Roswell. "We all have a great opportunity here to start our own tradition and build something to be proud of."

The Lady Bears have had summer workouts twice a week at the Old Milton High School as they anxiously waited for their own field to open this month. Archambeau said that nearly every girl that will play on the varsity team this fall participated in summer workouts and the team has laid a strong foundation for its first varsity season in region 7AAAAA — where its will play against a full region schedule in 2012.

Archambeau noted that the region would be very competitive top to bottom, but he plans on setting goals and expectations of excellence right away.

"There is a lot of softball talent for us to go up against with Kell, Pope, the Cherokee County schools and others, but we look at that as a good thing because it will show us where we need to be," Archambeau said.

"We've tried to stay away from specific win-loss goals in year one. Instead, we're setting expectations for our program to compete for region championships and make the state playoffs. If those are the things we want to achieve in the future then those are the same expectations we are going to have this season."

While workouts have carried on for much of the summer, team tryouts will officially take place at the Cambridge softball field today and tomorrow. Practices will commence next week and the Lady Bears will take the field in their first official games in the Kell softball tournament on Aug. 10 and 11.

The Lady Bears first home game will be Aug. 15 when they play host to Fellowship Christian and their first region tilt will be held the following night when they play host to Forsyth Central.


Read more: NeighborNewspapers.com - Cambridge Lady Bears prepare for first season