One common goal among many high school sports teams is to make it to state, but only a fraction will actually achieve this goal. During the 2025 season, the Yutan-Mead Patriots were one of the eight teams to advance to the Class C state softball tournament, but this didn’t come without preparation.
“We’ve been preparing for state since the beginning,” senior outfielder Adie Gale said. “Throughout the beginning of the season, our practices would get a little out of hand…some people would lose focus or just have side conversations, but I think that our practices going into districts and the state tournament were very locked in. We all were determined to get better, and we all had a goal in mind.”
The Patriots not only prepared for state on the field during practice but also off the field during team bondings.
“Last year we did Bible studies and team bondings, which we carried into this year, and we were all super close on and off the field, so I think that just helped us be able to trust each other on the field,” sophomore Addi Jones said.
As the Patriots kept the goal of making it to the state tournament in mind, they first had to win their district final against Logan View/Scribner-Snyder at home.
“At the beginning of the season we played Logan View close, and then the first game of district finals we run-ruled them, which really showed our growth through the season…and all of our hard work that we put into the beginning of the season finally paid off and we got to accomplish our goal of making it to state,” Jones said.
The 8-0 and 8-3 district final wins set up a first round state match against Centura, whom the Patriots defeated 3-1.
“Our game against Centura, our opening round game, was a really good game for us. We attacked the pitcher really early. We made them make plays, and that resulted in them making a lot of errors. And our defense was really good,” Gale said.
After the first round win, the Patriots advanced to play Hastings St. Cecilia, where they lost with a score of 0-2. While the Patriots played a tight game, they were unable to overcome the strong play of St. Cecilia.
“Hastings St. Cecilia’s pitcher threw lights out against us, and their defense played amazing,” head coach Brooke Campbell said.
After their loss to St. Cecilia, they were matched with Central City in the consolation bracket. During their match against Central City, the Patriots kept the lead up until the beginning of the sixth inning but were unable to stop Central City’s offense and were sent home with a 4-6 loss.
“Our last game against Central (City) wasn’t necessarily a bad game, but we definitely didn’t perform to the ability that we know we could have. Their pitcher was probably their best part of their team. She pitched a really, really good game. And so ultimately, we just didn’t find our bats,” Gale said.
Even though the state tournament may not have ended how the Patriots had planned, there were a lot of memories and accomplishments to be proud of.
“My favorite memories were seeing the absolute complete effort from every single girl on the team for every single game! Start to finish. The grit each of these girls showed absolutely made my heart happy,” Campbell said.
