The Malad High School softball teams meets with head coach Bri Adams (black beanie) between innings during a victory over the Declo Hornets earlier this season. | Kalama Hines, EastIdahoSports.com MALAD CITY — For more than decade, the now-3A classification’s state softball championship has gone through Malad. The Dragons have won seven of the past 11 banners during a stretch of 12 straight district championships, and having just finished the regular season with a 22-2 record are gearing up for yet another run at the crown. Head coach Bri Adams spoke about this run of dominance, saying that softball is taken seriously in Malad, where the 10U, 12U and 14U teams are all highly competitive and “pretty important to the community.” Those young girls, Adams continued, like past groups, will come into high school wanting to be part of the Dragon “legacy.” “They start young here, and a lot of the girls coming up have older sisters who were on the team … they’ve seen the success and they all want to be a part of that success,” she said. Adams is the third coach to helm the Malad softball team during its run. One of her assistant coaches, Rachel Green, played for Malad while she was in high school, and now gets to see the work it takes to be dominant, from the other side. That, Adams said, has been “very cool” to be a part of. Asked if she believes her players fully appreciate their part in this story, Adams said she is not sure that is their focus. “I don’t know if they think too deeply about it,” she said, adding that the teens are focused on having fun and winning rather than the historical significance. “I don’t know if the girls fully realize how big of a deal it is. Where I’m from, you don’t do this. Ever.” The Malad Dragon infield meets near the pitching circle before an inning against Declo. | Kalama Hines, EastIdahoSports.com Within the dominant 12-year run is a mini run driven by this season’s senior class. This year’s group of eight senior players — and a senior team manager — Adams said, has been playing together for nearly a decade and have “carried” the Dragon program for four years. They have become stars and leaders, both in the way they have performed and the example they set. “I’m grateful to be a part of it, because these kids are absolutely incredible,” Adams said trying not to cry. “They spend their early mornings, and their lunch hours, and their nighttimes in batting cages. It’s important to them, and it’s really cool, as a coach, to see the kids put so much work into something that’s important to them.” The seniors, led by two-way star Riglee Peterson, won state championships their freshman and sophomore seasons, and are coming off a runners-up finish last season. They will not get a second crack at Cole Valley Christian, who beat them in the state championship game last season, as the Chargers moved up to 4A this year. But, Adams said, it is a group with a clear target. “It lit a fire in my girls,” she said of the seniors. “Having eight, nine girls who want it really bad, I think that they have their eyes set on gold — they saw and felt what it was like not to get it last year.” Malad softball’s senior class of 2025 | Photo courtesy Facebook. Malad celebrated its senior night Thursday with a 15-0 conference victory over Soda Springs. It was the senior class’s final regular season game, but also the team’s first on its new home field. Until Thursday, the Dragons played their home games at Malad Elementary School. Now, they have a brand new, on-campus field to call their own. Adams described the team’s Wednesday practice, its first time on the new field. “It was like coaching a bunch of 12-year-old giddy little girls,” she said. A new field, the coach continued, means new traditions. Among those new traditions, the seniors were allowed to sign their names on a brick inside the home dugout. “It’s especially exciting because, this group of girls, with two state titles and one runner-up, they deserve it,” Adams said. … “It means a lot for the girls and for the program, because of the success, that we have a nice field we can play on.” Adams is hopeful her team will be allowed to use the new field when it hosts the 3A District 4-5 tournament, which begins Monday. Asked what she wants her team to focus on as it approaches postseason play, Adams said that she wants to see the offense improve — despite its having scored opponents 98 runs to just seven over its past seven games. Aside from that, she wants the players to enjoy playing the game they love, with people they love playing alongside. “I just want them to enjoy it. I want them to soak it in. When they enjoy it, they play their best,” Adams said. “But they have to realize, they have to bring the fire — dragons bring fire.”The post Malad has dominated 3A softball for years, now its senior class looks to go out on top appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com