Seniors Miss out on Final Softball Year

Norwood Softball Coach Carol Savino was looking forward to this season being another successful one; one in which the Mustangs would once again qualify for the Division 2 South Tournament. However, the Mustangs never even saw he field during the 2020 season, and the team’s three seniors were robbed of their final high school season due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Last spring, Norwood finished the regular season with a 12-6 record to advance into the tournament where they took out East Bridgewater and upset Hanover before their fall to Fairhaven in the Quarter Finals.
“We were looking to have yet another good season and qualify for the tournament once again, something we’ve done every year I’ve been at Norwood except one,” Savino said. “It was going to be no different than in the past. The kids worked extremely hard and having no season is tough. After practicing six days a week it becomes a habit, one in which the girls probably didn’t think they’d ever miss.”
Entering the season, Savino would have fielded a relatively young team with the majority of players being underclassmen and the squad’s pitching staff being made up of a freshman and a sophomore. And although the team didn’t have the opportunity to take to the field, Savino finds it very tough on the girls, especially the trio of senior captains: leftfielder Jenn Mazzola, third baseman Heather Gagliard and shortstop Emma Maturo.
“You look forward to playing in your senior year, no matter what the sport, and now they don’t get to play it out,” Savino said. “I feel really bad for these kids. The seniors lose their final year while the freshman finally get to high school and they’re already losing a year.”
Coming into the season, Savino thought Norwood had a good shot of playing exceptionally well considering the way her pitchers had looked down the stretch of their last campaign. According to the Norwood Coach, high school softball is all about pitching and her girls were more than ready for the upcoming year.
During the original suspension of the season, the Norwood girls were all working on their own to keep in shape, hitting off tees, and throwing to one another; that is as long as they could.
“I feel really bad for all the kids, but the seniors will never get back their senior years,” Savino said. “The younger kids, they too all lost a year of their careers, but they still have their senior season to look forward to.”
Despite having no high school season, some of the girls could possibly be playing on travel teams during the summer, but the Mustang Coach doesn’t see the summer being any better and they may not get a chance to compete then either. If there is a summer season, Savino believes the girls could participate if they so choose to.
“Being a travel coach, if any of the seniors wanted to play one final season of softball before heading to college, I’d get them on a team,” Savino said. “It’s just a shame to miss out on your last year.”
Not only are the Norwood softball players missing out on their finals season representing the high school, Savino is finding things extremely difficult on her end as well.
“I’m going absolutely crazy,” the Norwood Coach said. “I’m used to moving around and doing things. I need to get out onto the field and at this point I’m not sure if we’ll have anything this summer either.”