July 27th: Regina's Angela Kessler
IOWA CITY, Iowa — After graduating six senior from last year's State tournament team, there was little hope for second year Regina coach, Angela Kessler, to get her team back to Fort Dodge.
"We had a lot of adjustments to make throughout the year", Angels says. "I can't say enough about the ability of this team to adjust and be flexible."
Sophomore Morgan Gahan adds, "She told us 'every one of you is amazing at this sport', and she gave us the confidence that we needed to, even though we already had confidence in ourselves, she reassured that confidence."
Brimming with confidence, Regina upset the #1 team in the State in the 2A semifinals, and finished the season with a State championship trophy last Friday.
Angels says, "I think it's fun as a coach to watch girls work so hard, and then reap the rewards of that work."
Sophomore Avery Kies adds, "I think we just kept getting motivation because we really wanted to go to the State tournament-that was our motivation, to keep pushing. When you get close to the ending, you can see the finish line. And we knew we could get there if we kept pushing."
That's two State tournaments and one State title after just two years with Angela at the helm of the Regal softball team.
Junior Courtney Kessler says, "We practice really hard, and we definitely have intense practices that prepare us for the big moments on the playing field. I think [Angela] has a good connection with all of her players, so that helps."
Nobody has a better front row seat to that connection than Courtney Kessler-Angela's daughter, who's played for her mom most of her life. "She coached all my little league teams growing up. I never thought she would coach my high school team though. That's kind of fun."
Angela says, "Her teammates do a really good job of not treating her different. She does a good job of not being treated different and not treating me differently than she would another coach."
Angela makes it clear: her coaching and teaching goes both ways. "I think the girls have taught me more than I've taught them. They're such a great group of kids and they're so hard-working. We're going to keep focusing on the hard work, we're going to keep focusing on these girls being responsible and respectful young ladies that play ball. And good things happen when you work hard."
