Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Softball Head Coach Lindsay Stanford opens up about the quality of teams seen at the state tournament helps prepare her squad to continue to get better each year.

Stanford tells Raccoon Valley Radio that she believes the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union does a nice job of taking the best eight teams in the five classes and pinning them against each other to compete for a state championship. The Tigers are coming off their fifth straight appearance at the state tournament and Stanford emphasizes that there are many emotions attached to that, which is an internal battle the girls have to face. She mentions that ADM understands what it takes to reach the top, and the experience helps mitigate the distractions.

“There’s nerves, there’s all of that that everybody’s going to have and nerves are great, but at least having that experience and that exposure, I think has cut down a little bit for us, which was great.”

Stanford says that all the teams deserved to be there, and knows that seeing everybody’s top performers is going to bode well for all the players for the Tigers. ADM defeated Dallas Center-Grimes in the Class 4A opening round, lost to Pella in the semifinals, and then snagged third place against North Scott, concluding the year with a 29-9 record.