With the start of their season approaching, the Nicholls State University softball team takes on two new coaches and a fresh focus for the 2012 season.

Last September, nearly 30 applicants vied after the head coaching position for the Colonels. It was Nicholls Athletic Director Rob Bernardi, who hired Angel Santiago for the job.

“Coach Santiago is known as a tireless recruiter and an exceptional teacher of the game,” Bernardi said. “I know he will have a positive impact on our women’s softball program, both now and in the years to come.”

Santiago, a native of Chicago Heights, Ill., comes to Nicholls excited about the opportunity to be a head coach, after assistant coaching at Florida State University and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Santiago brings a large background of coaching experience to the Colonels, including more than just softball. Santiago has previous involvement with coaching baseball at both the junior college level and high school level, though he claims to have settled with softball because “it is the epitome of perfect.”

According to Santiago, the focus for his first season with the Colonels is getting back to the fundamentals of the game. “I try to get the girls to troubleshoot their issues, so that they learn for themselves and can make adjustments in the box,” Santiago said. “We’re looking to pinpoint mechanics, and have a tough attitude to make comebacks in games.”

The Colonels also gained new assistant coach Jessica Seamon in the process of rebuilding their coaching staff. Seamon will help to oversee the everyday operations of the softball program as well as work with the Colonel pitching staff. She will also assist in recruiting, hitting and camp operations.

“I primarily handle the pitching staff because that was my specialty in college, but I do a little bit of everything,” Seamon said. “When you’re a two-coach staff, there’s really no rock that goes unturned; you help with everything.”

Santiago and Seamon knew each other previous to arriving at Nicholls. While Santiago was coaching at FSU, Seamon often fed him players from her club team, the Atlanta Vipers’ 18 Gold softball team.

“We’ve been talking about trying to work together for a while,” Seamon said. ” I think his philosophy and the way he teaches is similar to mine, and I thought it was a great opportunity for me to learn from him. I was excited about the opportunity to come coach with him.”

In just the five months together so far, Santiago has realized that one of his team’s biggest strengths is their versatility. “Kids that play outfield can play infield. Kids that can play infield can catch, and kids that can catch can also pitch,” he said. “There’s a lot of versatility on this team.”

Both Santiago and Seamon agree on some of the Colonel’s standout players they are going to use to start the season off right.

“Ashley Ray was the player of the year in the conference last year, and she’s absolutely lighting it up in practice right now,” Santiago said of the senior third base/centerfielder. “Megan Gaspard, Ashton Bennett and Katie Moulder have all come up big too.”

“Bennett and Katie Moulder are the two pitchers we probably rely on the most at this point, so we just have to keep them healthy,” Seamon said. “They both have a great mentality and that blue collar, get after it competitiveness, and those are the types of players we want,” Seamon adds.

Senior outfielder and shortstop Megan Gaspard vows there will be a lot more action in their games this year than in previous seasons. “We’re looking to score a lot of runs and play a lot of cat and mouse with other teams and keep them on their toes,” Gaspard said. “We want to keep the other teams wondering and guessing what we’re going to do next.”

Gaspard, a Coteau native, ranked second in the Southland Conference in stolen bases (22), third in runs scored (37), and fourth in hits (59) last year as a junior.

Another standout Colonel player to watch for this season is Ashley Ray, who was named first-team All-Louisiana and player of the year in the southland conference last year as a junior. Ray set the program single-season home run record last year with 17, and ranked second in the Southland in batting (.368), first in home runs (17), runs batted In (51) and slugging percentage (.732). Among many other awards, Ray is currently tied for seventh on the all-time career home run list after just one season with the Colonels. She heads into 2012 with a 14-game hitting streak, which is tied for the program’s longest.

Junior pitcher Ashton Bennett leads the pitching staff in Earned Run Average (2.95), wins (7), innings pitched (142.1) and strikeouts (82).

Junior transfer Ashley Bertot, who plays second base and outfield, comes to the Colonels from Buffalo where she lettered two seasons for the Bulls. Bertot was also third on the team in hitting in 2011 (.255), and stole 16 bases. She was named to the MAC All-Freshman team in 2010 after hitting .306 and broke the program’s single-season stolen base record (26) in 2010.

Both Santiago and Seamon are excited for the upcoming season and are working towards some common goals. “On the academic side, we’re striving for a 3.2 GPA as a whole this year,” Santiago said. “And then I’m looking for a win loss record that’s way above the .500 mark on the playing side. I think we have the schedule that we can go in and really compete in our games to get it done. It really just takes a lot of effort from everybody.”

According to Seamon, the girls are working hard to set up community events to give back. “We want people to know that we’re not just going to play softball,” Seamon said. “We’re going to be involved all the way around.”

The players have other goals in mind. Gaspard says a team goal is to win the conference tournament. “I’ve been to the conference tournament and some of the girls on the team haven’t,” Gaspard said. “I want everyone on the team to be able to experience what it’s like to play at a conference tournament.”

Both coaches are excited for what the season brings.

“I’m excited to see the girls put everything that we’ve been working on into games and hopefully it culminates on the field,” Seamon said. “Hopefully we have a lot more highs than lows and they just fight through some stuff and I think if they do that then we’re going to be pretty close to where we want to be.”

“I’m excited for the hope and the attitude that things will change,” Santiago said. “I’m excited to get back to where this program belongs.”