Assistant coach Bolin promoted to head coach

The Sallisaw Lady Diamonds softball team won’t have to worry about getting indoctrinated to a totally new coach.

Sallisaw Lady Diamonds softball assistant coach Josh Bolin was promoted to being head coach at Monday night’s Sallisaw Public Schools Board of Education meeting. Bolin succeeds Hillary Gehrke, who stepped down as softball coach when her husband Chadd was hired as the new Chouteau-Mazie Lady Wildcats basketball coach last month.

“I’m pretty excited,” Bolin said. “It’s my first head coaching job, but at the same time it’s something I’ve been working for for the last four years. It’s just pure joy and excitement to take over this thing and get it rolling.”

Since Bolin has worked with the Lady Diamonds, it has helped in the small transition from assistant coach to head coach.

“Just having the bond with all the kids and the relationship with the kids is helping tremendously,” he said. “They know I’m going to hold myself to that same expectation that I hold for them. Even at the end of the day, if I’m getting on them, they know it’s not because I’m mad at them. It’s not because I’m trying to be mean. I want the best for them. I want them to be successful.”

Since Bolin was bumped up to head softball coach, a new assistant coach was needed. The SPS Board also took care of that as they hired former Roland basketball coach Greg Pratt to be Bolin’s assistant coach.

“I watched him coaching there (at Roland),” Bolin said. “I love his energy. He holds everybody to the same expectations across the board. He’ll get on the girls, but, at the same time, when they do good things, he’s going to congratulate them and build them up. In the coaching world, that’s very big. He’s coming in to help me in the outfield. We’ve been in discussion already. He’s just as excited as I am. We had a conversation (on Monday) for about two hours about everything we’re going to do and the tendencies we’re going towards. We’re both excited to get in here and get after it, build some culture, get things changed and turn it around.”

Bolin said he started summer workouts this week.

“We’re going through the first week,” he said. “The girls are really buying into what we’ve got going, how we’re going to do things and the expectations that have been set. They also know at the end of the day the expectations aren’t just for them, but for me and my assistant. They’re ready to go.”

Fans likely will notice a small tweak to how the Lady Diamonds will play this upcoming season, which will begin in August.

“We’re going to rely on the small ball game more than we have in the past,” Bolin said. “We’re going to take advantage of every opportunity we have, every base we have. We’re going to take advantage of every run. It’s them being more advantageous on the base paths. I’ve already been incorporating with the girls that anytime that ball is in the dirt (on a wild pitch or a passed ball), we’re getting there (to the next base). Any time they (the defense) bobble (the ball), we’re getting to the next bag, putting us in a position to score. In the past, we’ve kind of struggled with that, last year especially (in which the Lady Diamonds went 1-20).”

Although Bolin is taking over the softball program, his basketball coaching duties won’t be changing as he will be varsity assistant coach and head junior high coach.

“This job isn’t going to take away from that,” he said. “It’s not going to take away the joy and the excitement that I get from basketball. At the end of the day, I do it for the kids. This is all for the kids. I want to put them in all the best spots to win and be successful. I’m excited all the way around.”

The 2024 summer slate of activity is all set, which Bolin said will be a critical period in which to get the players to be fully prepared when the 2024 fast-pitch season will begin in August.

“We go to the Oktaha (Summer) League every Tuesday,” he said. “We’ll play two games there every Tuesday. Our first scrimmage is July 25. We go to Pocola that day. We have a scrimmage that following week. Then, we’ll roll on to the Panama Scrimmage Festival. Our last scrimmage will be Aug. 6 here against Catoosa at 11 a.m. We’re still pretty young. We have two seniors (Madison Green and Makenna Bormann), two juniors (Sydney Weedon and Delaney Compton) and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. Just getting out there and playing those scrimmages and game-like situations, stuff that we can control and putting them into situations that we may run into throughout the season, is big. I don’t want it to come to game time, and it be like, ’Oh my gosh! What do I do here?’ That’s our whole concept of getting our scrimmages we’ve got set up this year — just get out there, get going and settle in early.”

The board also hired Gore assistant football and head wrestling coach Matt Hawkins to be an assistant football and head JH baseball coach.