When Jeff Barker agreed to resume his head coaching duties for the Chelan High School fastpitch softball team this season after spending the previous two years coaching Chelan Middle School’s eighth-grade team, he realized right away that he would be facing significant challenges.

While Barker was away, enthusiasm for the high school program dwindled. Turnout numbers were low this spring as a result.

“It’s been a big change,” he said. “I knew that the eighth grade team last year didn’t have a lot of kids, so there wouldn’t be a lot of freshmen. I knew that the junior varsity team was pretty much gone, so there would be nobody to come up. We graduated five seniors from last year. I knew that we wouldn’t be very deep.”

Before the season started, one of the Goats’ starters from last year, sophomore Makayla Mendoza, blew out one of her anterior cruciate ligaments and was lost for the season. Soon thereafter, senior Jane Horlebein also suffered an ACL injury.

“We got thin very quickly,” Barker said.

Consequently, Chelan is currently playing with a 10-player roster. But despite their lack of depth, the Goats have been playing better than most people could have imagined at the start of the season.

After beating Cashmere 7-6 on Tuesday, Chelan sits in second place in the Caribou Trail League with a 7-3 record and is virtually guaranteed to finish in the one of the league’s top four spots and clinch a district playoff berth.

“We’ve been battling,” Barker said. “We’re playing as well as we can. We’ve been outmanned a few times, and a lot of people have told me that we’re playing better than expected, but I guess I have high expectations. We’re fighting, and we’re right there. Cascade is solid at the top, but it’s a dogfight with everybody else.”

Barker, who coached Chelan from 2001-08 before vacating the position in favor of Anne Becker, is strongly motivated to rebuild the Goats’ program.

That means he’ll have to get more players to turn out on an annual basis, to not only bolster the varsity squad but to resurrect the junior varsity team. But more importantly, he’ll have to get more of his players, and younger players in the elementary and middle schools as well, to simply gain more experience. That means playing with traveling or all-star squads during the summer months.

Barker firmly believes that the only way a player can become better is through sheer repetition.

“It’s going to take a couple of years,” he said. “Without playing summer ball or attending camps, the kids are just raw. We used to have U-10, U-12, U-14 and U-16 teams around here, but that stopped. We’re going to try to get U-10 and U-12 teams going again this year. Some kids have taken a couple years off, and they just need to play more.

“You look at the kids we have now, they’re trying hard, but they have no experience. If you’re not playing summer ball, you get behind. We’ll battle, do stuff in the off-season, and we’ll continue to get better. We’ll get over the hump, but it will take time.”

Barker said that junior Danielle Smythe, the team’s main pitcher and one of its best hitters, is going to play for the Omak-based Washington Mustangs traveling team this summer, and that the squad is also interested in sophomore Hailey Habich. Barker is hoping that a few more of his players can play in the Greater Wenatchee Girls Softball Association’s summer league.

But, as Barker noted, it’s going to hard to convince a lot of Chelan’s female athletes to totally commit to fastpitch as long as the school’s volleyball program – which won a state championship last fall – is as dominant as it has been in recent years.

“I’ve got a lot of dedicated year-round volleyball players,” he said. “They’re fired up for that, and that’s what we’re battling. But I’ll take the athletes, and do what we can.”

Right now, the Goats are doing what they can in order to remain viable in the competitive CTL. One of the good things about having virtually no bench is that the players know that they have total job security and won’t be pulled out of the game if they make mistakes.

“They just need to get innings,” Barker said. “Before I even knew what the (turnout) numbers would be, I told the players, ‘If you’re a starter, unless something drastic happens, you’re going to be out there. You’re not going to play three different spots, and you’re going to get comfortable.’

“We have a great group of girls. We do have athletes, some volleyball players, some three-sport athletes. They try, but it comes down to that don’t have a lot of experience. They’re listening and trying hard. This year we’re making it a point to never give up and fight to the last out, and if you have a bad game and get pounded, play hard for seven innings. The girls have been good that way. When we get more depth, we’ll be just fine.”

Barker does seem to have a burgeoning star in Smythe, a player that he can plan on building around. She’s turned in some efficient pitching performances this season, and Barker hopes that she’ll only get better with more experience.

“She works hard and has the right attitude,” he said. “The last two years, she just threw the ball, and she didn’t know how to call a game. She’s learning and changing some things. I like her demeanor. She wants to be in the circle. Our defense hasn’t been real strong, and we haven’t helped her out at times, but she’s had some outstanding games.”

Smythe is also developing as a hitter after not being involved in the Goats’ offense last season.

“She’s hitting in the four and five holes, and she’s strong,” Barker said. “She can hit for extra bases and has done a nice job considering her lack of experience. Overall, our team has swung the bat well. We haven’t struck out a whole lot and we’ve been putting the ball in play.”

But Barker knows that his job isn’t to solely focus on how many wins the Goats can collect this season. He’s committed to bringing the program back to relevance on a yearly basis, and he knows exactly how to do it.

“It’s hard to believe it’s dropped off so quickly,” he said. “We’re doing pretty well, and we’ll continue to get better by building through the younger ranks and playing summer ball again. We’ll get it back.”