On Thursday, Sept. 19, the 1998 Lady Raiders Softball team was recognized for winning back to back championships. The Lady Raiders won the 1997 Softball State Championship, ending the season with a collective 472 hits and 28 home runs. Then in 1998 they won again, collectively hitting 474 hits and 32 home runs. In 2018 the 1997 team was recognized for being the first team to win a championship in school history.

At the ceremony, many people that had nothing to do with the team or anyone on the team. Cassi Dillon stated,” The atmosphere was nice, I saw many of my old friends and it was just an overall great time. This meant so much to me because this was one of the best teams I’ve ever played with and we spent so much time. During the season we heard so many speeches when we won it was just amazing.” 

Many of the people on the 1997 and 98 teams were there in the second year of the school’s existence, 1995, when the team got second place. Cassi Dillon said, “After that, we kinda walked into next year expecting to win because the year before we got second after not being expected to do anything.” They ended up placing 5th in the state after a hard fight all season long.. In the next year, the Lady Raiders Softball team practically swept the competition, not losing a single game throughout the championship.In the 1998 state playoffs, the lady Raiders lose in first round and would’ve had to 6 games in the next day to win the championship. That’s just what they did: six games, six wins. The team was thrilled to win that year. Cass Dillon stated, “We were pulled out of our hotel rooms to talk about what we did right and wrong, and the next day we played it one game at a time.” The 1997 and 98 softball teams will go down as school legends.