Mike Vukovcan The ‘Second Season’ starts tonight for head coach Ronda Koblek and the Hopewell Vikings varsity softball team.
Tonight, the Vikings will take on Southmoreland in the 1st round of the WPIAL Playoffs.
Hopewell finished the season with a record of 11-7, tied for their most wins in 10+ seasons and are heading into the playoffs on roll.
Coach Koblek’s team has won 5 in a row and 6 of their last 7 games. Included in that was their most impressive win of the season, a 6-1 road win over Ellwood City, which is the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.
Hopewell was given a No. seed and will take on No. 10 seed Southmoreland. Regardless of the seed and the opponent, Coach Koblek is pleased with this season, the effort she received from her players and the future of the program.
“We’re definitely where we thought we would be,” Koblek told Vikings Sports Now. “We are in the toughest section in 3A. If you take a look at the placement of our section, the No. 2, 3 and 4 seeds all come our section. Having teams like Ellwood, Avonworth and Mohawk is a challenge, and we have to battle extremely hard against strong competition all season long, but we have a very strong team.”
Courtesy Hopewell HS Softball
“We lost three very good seniors last year especially pitching and Chloe at shortstop and Ava at third base. So, we had some big shoes to fill. Coming into this season, Avonworth and Mohawk didn’t lose anyone, and we did. So, I’m proud of our girls and thought they’ve played extremely hard this season. The key for us is confidence. We need to just believe in ourselves and the skill that we have because we can beat anyone, and they know it. That’s what we’re always striving to build is the confidence in the girls to make sure they believe in themselves and how good they really are.”
The one game that really gave this team confidence was beating a perennial power like Ellwood City. Koblek is hoping that game along with the way they finished the season will allow them to go on a little run in the playoffs.
“Beating them (Ellwood City) proved to my girls that if we come with the right mindset that we can beat anybody,” said Koblek. “They’re definitely excited for their first playoff game against Southmoreland. We’ve watched them play on video and we know that we can beat them. I strongly believe that this team is playing their best softball and I’m very confident heading into this game against Southmoreland and hopefully the girls can bring the same mentality that they did against Ellwood.”
This 2025 WPIAL Playoffs will be the final run for the 4 seniors on Hopewell’s roster- Victoria Mann, Kara Barkovich, Isabella Katkich, Tallula Showrank and Koblek is glad that they’re getting this final chance to experience the postseason and hopes it’s a memorable one.
“One of the things that I realize with the four seniors that I have this year is how much they stepped up, not only playing wise with their skill but also with their leadership,” said Koblek. “They’re the ones that keep the team strong. There’s no drama on our team. The team gets along, they stick together, they have each other’s back, no talking behind each other’s backs. That’s what makes our team strong, and it builds a culture for Hopewell softball that makes girls wanna play. Not only is this team good but they’re having fun doing it. Those four seniors really kept this team together, which really made us good.”
“Our four seniors are going to be very hard to replace, one of them is a 4-year starter and the other three are 3-year starters. They’ll be hard shoes to fill, no doubt about that. But we have talent coming in the incoming freshman class and I think that they have the maturity needed to compete. It’s going to be about getting those freshmen set on the mentality that we’re trying to have on this team so that we can be bring the best talent forward. It can’t be about ‘I” it has to be about team and that will be the biggest challenge that I have every year when freshmen come in. They need to realize that this is a team and not just one individual person.”
In case you want to make a road trip to check this team out, tonight’s game will begin at 7 PM from Trinity High School.
Best of Luck!
