By KIM NORTH

Times Leader Sports Writer

BRIDGEPORT — Timmy Smith has been a baseball guy is entire life. He’s about to be a softball guy.

The Bridgeport High graduate takes over for Paige Williams as the Bulldogs third head coach in four seasons. Williams, who had a 10-year run at Martins Ferry, was supposed to lead the Black-and-Blue last season before it was shut down due to COVID-19.

“I’ve spent four years as a high school summer league baseball coach and six years as an assistant with the varsity team,” Smith said of his previous coaching experience. “This year will be my first as a varsity softball coach, but I am excited to get going.”

Bridgeport has 13 players on the team, with two of them being returning letterwinners. There is only one senior and two freshmen. The sophomore and junior classes have five each.

Juniors Hailee Aubrey (P/INF) and Riley Bell (1B/3B) are the returnees.

Senior Hannah Graham (OF); juniors Haylee Conaway (OF), Nevaeh Fine (3B/OF) and Hallee Lewis (C/3B); sophomores Madison Criswell (OF), Kristen Falcone (OF), Addison Galownia (OF), Natalie Grace (OF) and Ronyn Saldana (OF); and freshmen Markiee McCormick (SS/P) and Brooke Stewart (2B/OF) complete the roster.

“Our girls are excited to help bring spring sports back to Bridgeport and to get back on the field to enjoy and play the game we’ve all come to love,” Smith said. “Eighty-five percent of our team has never played high school softball before.

“Without many upperclassmen and letterwinners leadership, our communication efforts with our student-athletes will not exist, as a coaching staff, we will definitely rely on our junior class to help steer the ship and to help lead us into our 2021 journey,” he added.

“We have a very promising freshmen class that are now just getting their feet wet. I know they expect great things to happen for them overnight, but as long as they put in the time and effort this season, they will grow as a team two-fold going into next season.”

As far as an outlook for the season, Smith said, “How we handle adversities and challenges as individuals, and as a team, will mostly determine our outcome this season. There will probably be days where we will have growing pains, but with the student-athletes we have this season, we are building a great foundation for the future.

“I truly believe we will catch some teams by surprise,” he continued. “We plan to take our program on a day-to-day basis in hopes that we do the little things right, which will lead to bigger and better results in the future.”

Lost to graduation were Jaida Kusic, Kayleigh Roberts, Sierra Simeth, Jessa Stockwell and Jaren Tucker.

Smith is assisted by Courtney Gouldsberry and Taylor Kinkus.