A quick pitch of a shirt on her first day teaching would kick off the start of health teacher Brooke Toy’s softball-coaching career.
Spanish teacher Floyd Montiel, who coached varsity softball for eight years, met PE teacher Brooke Toy on her first day on campus and invited her to be an assistant coach as he tossed her an MHS softball shirt.
Toy went to Pacific University where she played two years of volleyball along with four years of softball. She said while she was getting her degree, she decided coaching was something she really wanted to do.
“I wanted to be a teacher before I went to college and I thought that really nailed down my decision that teaching and coaching really went hand-in-hand,” Toy said. “So when I went and got my masters in teaching I was really looking for somewhere I could coach, too.”
Now, Montiel has stepped down and Toy is leading the softball program. Montiel met with Toy prior to the season to go over practice plans, what to expect and what it all entailed. Montiel said there are things that have to be dealt with as head coach that she did not really experience as an assistant.
“The reality is it’s a huge time commitment and if you want to be successful you have to put a lot of time in outside of your regular season,” Montiel said.
Since Montiel stepped down as head coach to spend more time with his family and Toy has taken over, she said she has noticed a change.
“[Now] I’m the one in charge, so it was a lot different than last year because I have to write the practice plans and I was the one who was telling people where to go and what to do and that was [Montiel] last year, so it’s definitely more stressful, but it makes me excited to play games,” Toy said.
Toy said many of the players were excited to hear she would be taking over, but that they also have to adjust to her being in a different position.
“Last year I felt like they could come to me more as a friend and get advice that way, then now with me being the head coach and they come to me in a different way,” Toy said. “They’re responding well to it.”
For senior outfielder Essence Botts, having a young coach recently out of college is beneficial to the team.
“Coming out of college having just been a softball player, it’s good because it’s still fresh in her mind with all the stuff that they did,” Botts said.
Botts also said it does not matter who the coach is as long as they are playing and the team has a good coach.
“She’s taught us a lot differently than Montiel did, but it’s good to have a different perspective from different coaches about what we do, like how we bat and how we run,” Botts said.
Botts said she understands the frustration that comes with being a coach, especially if players happen to make mistakes.
“I think she handles it really well with us making mistakes,” Botts said. “She knows we’re going to make those mistakes and that we’ll correct them and get them right the next time.”
Montiel said Toy will do just fine and she has a good support system from her JV coach and assistants.
“She’s young, she hasn’t coached very much but she’s going to do fine. She’s kind of like a blank slate. She’s going to be molded,” Montiel said.
Junior Jade Chavez said things are going just like normal and expects the team to do well since the drop down to the 4A.
“I expect our season to go actually pretty well. Hopefully we win league this year and go to a state tournament,” Chavez said.
Toy is optimistic about the drop down to 4A because of how it will affect their season. She said it will be a different dynamic playing against new schools.
“Sometimes you play in an easy league and then you get out and play somebody in playoffs that was in a hard league and you didn’t see that competition,” Toy said. “We’re playing in a tournament [in Bend] with some higher level teams and some 5A teams that we played last year so hopefully that will prepare us for a little bit of the tougher completion that we’re going to see maybe in post season.”
According to Toy, when the team was still in the 5A division last year, they had the chance to play a few of the other schools that are in the Far West League now, and beat them. She said those wins give them a chance to win the league title this year.
“We’ve played three of the six teams that are in the Far West League last year,” Toy said. “We beat them pretty handedly so I feel like we have a pretty good chance at competing for the league title, if not winning it.”
