Live Oak's Walton earns coaching honor

Average to astounding.

It's what has happened to the Live Oak softball team in the course of a season, and its no coincidence that Erin Walton was at the helm.

When she took over this season as the head coach of the Lions, she inherited a team that finished a pedestrian 12-12 in 2008 and was full of underdeveloped underclassmen. The Lions finished the season 19-4 and are now on the map, loaded with solid returners for next season and will enter the year as one of the favorites to win the Northern Section Division V championship.

And it's no fluke that it happened under Walton's tutelage. The former four-sport athlete at Biggs High has a passion for prep sports and it showed with the way she helped talented players prosper and built up those who needed help.

For her team's accomplishments, the Appeal-Democrat has tabbed Walton as it's 2009 softball Coach of the Year.

A 10-year veteran at Live Oak, Walton has coached Volleyball, is the Lions' girls basketball coach and served a three-year stint as the softball coach when she first arrived at the school in North Sutter County.

Because of her commitment to the basketball team, it made for an interesting start to the season.

"I was doing softball right after school and basketball in the evenings," said Walton. "I only had a full team (at practice) one day before our first official game."

No matter. The Lions came out strong with a 10-2 start before falling 1-0 to Colusa.

"We started out with the Yuba City Tournament and I was pleasantly surprised when our only two losses were to Marysville," Walton said. "It was nice, we looked at the losses as moments to improve."

Though after the Mar. 27 loss to the Redskins, the Lions wouldn't lose until they were upset in the first round of the playoffs. It still frustrates Walton to talk about it, but she knows that she now has the pieces in place for next year and a team that is hungry.

She will return solid players like Lyndsey Sizemore, Mercedez Duenas and pitchers Courtney and Chelsea Souza. But she also has a strong contingent of other players whose games were broken down and run through the basics of the game.

"I'm a bit demanding and I have high expectations," Walton said. "And I don't like excuses."

She got very few from her players, and the results showed, namely with the inexperienced players on the team.

"It's great to see a kid who couldn't hit, finish the season at .300," she said.