GCT senior pitcher Shea Cothren
The Greene County Tech Lady Eagles softball program has been one on the rise over the last four years, and senior pitcher Shea Cothren has played a big part in her team’s success.
“It all starts with her,” GCT head coach Scott Wright said of his senior pitcher. “When she starts throwing the ball well everyone gets involved and they know they have a chance to win every time out. … Her leadership is being in the circle for us.”
In Control of the Circle
Cothren is producing yet another stellar season for the Lady Eagles this year. The Lady Eagles’ senior is averaging right around 11 strikeouts per game in her senior year, including several dominant performances. Cothren recorded 22 Ks in a double-header sweep of Batesville in late March, a week later in GCT’s double-header sweep over Nettleton, Cothren went the distance in both games allowing just two runs and striking out 16 in the double-header.
“The thing I really like about Shea is that she is a competitor and she wants to win. She cannot stand to lose, which is very nice for a coach,” Wright said. “Not only is she a competitor, but she has a lot of talent to go with it. That’s why we’re winning a lot of games, not to mention the other girls we have make a nice team.”
“Shea has been a contributor since day one as a freshman,” Wright said. “She’s a huge part of the success we have had and she has gotten better every year.”
Last year as a junior, Cothren recorded a total of 238 strikeouts while posting a 18-7 record in a year that her coach said she really came into her own in the circle.
“When I was a freshman I was really timid out here, but I think over the years I’ve just kind of broken out,” Cothren shared. “(Back then) we played against people like Shelby Wise … and I was like ‘oh my goodness, what now?’ But now I just go out there and pitch and play ball and it’s not any different than anything else.”
Meeting her Goals
Cothren has long hoped to someday play at the next level of college softball and now she can count the weeks until that dream becomes a reality. Cothren is on her way to SEMO in the fall to pitch for the Division-I Lady Redhawks.
“I’m very excited. I love the coach and I love the team. I’m just excited to go and play at that next level.”
The GCT senior knows it takes hard work and dedication to accomplish her goals, she’s done it before when it comes to softball.
“My Dad is into all these mental things and he made me write a pitching speed that I wanted to reach on my mirror once,” Cothren shared with a smile. “I wrote it in pink lipstick and I finally reached that goal.”
The pink “65” served as motivation for about the year’s worth of hard work and dedication it took to reach. Cothren’s goal of playing Division-I softball took the same amount of vision.
“When it came to playing Division-I, I told myself that I wasn’t going to settle for anything less,” Cothren said. “I was so relieved and excited when they called me.”
Last November, Cothren became the first player in GCT softball history to sign with a Division-I school, a great moment for her and the GCT program.
“That will always be a special memory for me and I know it’s important to her,” Wright said. “It’s also important to this program that we have somebody go to a Division-I school. That’s important to the girls that are on this team, but it’s also important to the girls in the seventh grade, and the eighth grade and the sixth grade. They’re going to see that we’re running a good program out here and they’ll see that if they come out here and work hard they might have the opportunity to get their college paid for. What a complement to the program.”
Cothren fell in love with the SEMO campus after visiting it last year and she was also very impressed with their medical studies program, a particular interest to Cothren who hopes to be an anesthesiologist once her softball playing days in college come to an end.
Cothren will pitch and play first base for SEMO, after almost exclusively being in the circle the past few years for the Lady Eagles.
“It’s exciting, but I also don’t want to leave these people,” Cothren says of her GCT teammates and sisters. “I don’t want to leave, but hopefully I’ll be able to come back and see them.”
According to Cothren the closeness of this year’s Lady Eagles’ squad is one of the reasons they have their sights set on big things as their season enters the stretch run. Cothren has played with all but just a couple girls on her team since she was eight years old. “We have a really, really good team this year and I feel that our closeness is going to help a lot,” Cothren shared. “We are a lot closer than anyone here has ever been and I know that’s going to pull us through a lot of tough situations.”
Lady Eagles have their eyes on the prize
The determined pitcher commands her team’s attention when she’s in the circle, leading GCT to a 7-1 start to begin the season in the always-difficult 5A-East play, including two victories over perennial front-runner Nettleton and a split with crosstown rival Paragould.
“We made the semifinals last year in the 5A state and we had a bitter taste in our mouth from not going further, so that motivated us,” Wright said. “Our goals on the season (started with) winning the 5A-East, we’ve never done that and this will be our best opportunity to do that.”
The Lady Eagles stood at 13-4-2 overall on the season following their doubleheader split with Paragould in mid-April.
“My freshman year was the first time we went to the state tournament and we did as the four seed,” Cothren remembered. “My sophomore year we were the third seed, my junior year we were the second and hopefully this year we’ll be first. That’s our team goal.”
Wright is in his fifth year leading the Lady Eagles’ softball program. Before Wright’s tenure at GCT the softball program had a revolving door of coaches with seven different head coaches in the eight previous seasons.
“When Coach Wright came here he completely turned the program around,” Cothren shared. “He’s so passionate about the sport and cares about us like were his own kids.”
As the team prepares for the stretch run this year, the Lady Eagles have their eyes set on the state’s biggest prize.
“Our second goal was to get back to the state tournament and ultimately we want to win the whole thing. If that’s not our goal then I don’t think we have the bar raised high enough,” Wright shared. “We’re not just content with making the state tournament anymore, we did that three years ago. Now that we’ve been in it and have a little bit better knowledge on what we’re doing, we want to win the whole thing.”
The GCT team has five seniors on the squad this year including Cothren, just three juniors and a large group of sophomores and freshmen as the team looks like they’ll be a softball threat for years to come in northeast Arkansas and at the state level.
“Hopefully it will continue every year so that when a team sees Greene County Tech on the schedule they’ll know they have to strap it on that day,” Wright said. “That’s where we want to be.”
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