LAKE COUNTY >> First-year Clear Lake High School softball coach Doug Wingler didn’t have to build a team from the ground up after inheriting a Cardinal squad pretty much intact from a section championship season in 2015, but he did tweak the squad here and there while leading it to another great year.
Rachel Wingler, a four-year veteran of the North Central League I softball wars with Cloverdale and Lower Lake, helped her dad make a smooth transition from assistant coach to head coach by winning all 19 of Clear Lake’s games and recording her 700th career strikeout along the way.
Wingler – as in Doug – is the Coach of the Year while daughter Rachel is the most valuable player on the 2016 edition of the All-Lake County Softball Team as selected by the Lake County Record-Bee with input from county coaches and the NCL I coaches, who selected the All-League team late last month.
Clear Lake played 25 games in 2016 and went 19-6, including wins in13 of its first 14 league games. Wingler was the pitcher of record in every single game. While an injury early in the season kept her from pitching at 100 percent, she steadily improved and was dominant throughout much of the Cardinals’ run to the undisputed league title. She also slugged four home runs during the season while manning the cleanup sport in a Clear Lake offense that was built around contact and speed. Wingler certainly provided the power element.
An assistant under former Clear Lake head coach Gary Pickle, Doug Wingler stepped right into his mentor’s shoes – and those were some pretty big shoes to fill – while taking over one of Lake County most successful high school programs (the Cardinals haven’t had a losing season since 1993). While most of the team’s starters were returning after Clear Lake’s Division V section win over St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda in 2015, Wingler had to plug holes at shortstop and first base. He also had to keep a team used to performing at a high level motivated as it moved up into a much more competitive Division IV this season for the playoffs. The Cardinals won a first-round game before falling 4-0 to Fortuna in the quarterfinals.
Wingler certainly has a big rebuilding job ahead of him after losing six seniors – all starters – to graduation, most notably his daughter, a winner of 74 games during her four seasons.
First team
Joining Rachel Wingler on the first team are three of her teammates, senior outfielder Mina Werner, junior outfielder Shyanne Chapin and senior third baseman Alicia Ledesma.
Lower Lake, the only team to beat Clear Lake in league play and 18-7 overall including 11-3 in league play, is represented on the first team by two of its season-long contributors, senior first baseman Kristen Celli and senior third baseman Azuree Meza.
Also selected for first-team honors was Kelseyville first baseman Bib Hamner, only a sophomore. No NCL I team in 2016 showed more improvement than the Knights and Hamner was a big reason why as she delivered time and time again either as the team’s No. 3 or cleanup hitter.
Second team
Many of the county’s second-team players in 2016 would have first-team players in other seasons. This year’s list includes senior catcher Anessia Jack and senior second baseman Emily Psalmonds of Clear Lake, senior pitcher Ashlynn Mock and senior shortstop Jolean Scarborough of Lower Lake, senior outfielder Brendelyn Pelzel and junior shortstop Kailani Brown of Kelseyville, sophomore pitcher Julia Mooney of Upper Lake, and senior first baseman Hannah Flynn of Middletown.
