Brantley High School’s dominating softball program won its fifth state championship since 2014 this spring, with the Lady Bulldogs as hungry for victory as they’ve ever been.
Brantley, which finished as the Class 1A runner-up in 2019 and saw the 2020 season end in March due to COVID-19, again lifted the championship trophy in May. The Lady Bulldogs (32 to 12) swept through the state tournament undefeated and capped their title with a victory over Skyline in the finals.
“We were really hungry,” head coach Cindy Hawthorne says. “We lost 3 seniors off the 2020 team that didn’t get to finish the season. We hated that, but we also wanted to embrace that for them. We felt very fortunate to be able to play this season because there was a time that I didn’t know if we’d finish this season.”
With uncertainty surrounding the season, the players went into every game knowing it could be their last. Sophomore Ainsley Watts led the team with a .512 batting average. Junior Kayden Dunn hit .500 with 21 home runs and 64 runs batted in. Sophomore Kaylee Navarre pitched 152 innings and recorded 280 strikeouts. Senior Lauren Hudson had 122 strikeouts in 83.1 innings pitched.
Brantley’s title season joined championship-winning teams from 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018. The Lady Bulldogs also were state runners-up in 2017 and 2019.
That level of sustained excellence is hard enough to attain but may be even tougher in Class 1A, when a great senior class may graduate together or a key injury scrambles the lineup. Hawthorne, who has been the head coach throughout this period, credits that 2014 team for changing the culture of the program.
“I really think those kids just set the standard, and they set it pretty high,” she says. “We had some kids this year who were in the third and fourth grade when we won the first championship. Sheonte Barginere was probably in the fourth grade at that time. She was our starting shortstop. She was a huge leader for us on this team.”
Preparation is already underway for the 2022 season.
“They work really, really hard. It just doesn’t happen,” the coach says. “It starts in the summers with workouts. I really think championships are won in the summer. They prepare themselves, and they get mentally tough. They start depending on their teammates. It’s a great camaraderie throughout the entire season.”