As the Hermon softball team began tryouts Monday afternoon, one member of the Hawk team took the lead in guiding her teammates through some warmups.

Junior pitcher Ashley Kelley, who had a breakout year in 2006, skipped ahead of her teammates, showing them a drill. The Hawks need all the leadership they can get with just two seniors back from a team that went 12-6 last year.

“She’s already instructing some of the younger kids,” said head coach Adam Leach, who is in his first year with the team. “She’s got a sweet personality and she’s not a prima donna. She’s very down-to-earth. She’s just a good kid to lead the team.”

Kelley and other pitchers and catchers, including Hermon junior catcher Amanda Page, were allowed to report to practice for the first time March 19. Softball and baseball position players, as well as student-athletes in tennis, outdoor track and field, and lacrosse reported Monday.

The Hawks graduated their starting catcher and shortstop, which means they’ve got seven starters back with outfielder Becky Colpits and outfielder-second baseman Mycah Cyr, as the only returning seniors.

“They were young last year and they’re still young,” Leach said. “They’re very young. There’s some talented freshmen, so that should be interesting. And the catcher, Amanda Page, has also really impressed me.”

Leach planned to spend Monday’s practice standing back and watching his new squad.

“Today I’ll be mostly quiet,” he said. “I’ll leave them to their own devices, give them stations and drills, and see, and then take it from there.”

He got a good look at his ace last week.

It was a busy winter for Kelley who played basketball for the Hawks, earning Big East Conference Class B first-team honors, while working with Lynn Coutts, a former University of Maine softball player and Skip Estes, who coaches Brewer High.

Last fall Kelley also joined the Southern Maine Flames, an Amateur Softball Association team based in Scarborough. She also traveled to team workouts every weekend.

“It’s a long trip but I get to meet a lot more people and I get a lot more exposure in southern Maine,” said Kelley, who is the northernmost member of the Flames.

Her winter work included adding two more pitches, a screwball and a curveball, for six total. Her fastball-changeup combo last year produced a 0.54 ERA and more than 200 strikeouts. Kelley walked just eight last spring.

“Last year was the big riseball year,” she said. “Now it’s branching off into screwball and curveball.”

Leach said Kelley’s control over her pitches is impressive.

“She’s got six pitches and she can control all of them,” he said. “That doesn’t happen, even with a Major League [baseball] pitcher.”

Two other Hermon girls turned out for last week’s practices but neither had pitched before. Kelley was quick to help.

“I help the younger girls on a pretty regular basis,” she said.

Other returning varsity players include right fielder Ally Wharton, third baseman Jaimie Beers, utility player Jasmine Veilleux, shortstop Lily Barry, shortstop-second baseman Cheyanne Woodard and first baseman Erin Arnold.

“I think this season we’re going to do really well,” Kelley said. “We haven’t lost much from last year and we have a lot of good players in our infield back. We’re working to improve our skills.”

So much for quiet spring

Leach took over the Hermon softball coaching position about 10 days before last week’s first day of practice for pitchers and catchers. He replaces Stephanie Biberstein, who is in her ninth month of pregnancy.

A Bangor High School history teacher, Leach coached the Bangor boys soccer team to its first Class A state championship last fall. The Hermon resident had also served as Bangor’s junior varsity softball coach for seven years and had previously coached a year of varsity baseball at Hermon.

Leach had resigned from the Bangor JV softball job and intended to take the spring semester off from coaching. He said the Hermon position was advertised in the fall and readvertised in February.

“I was just going to have a normal, casual spring,” Leach said. “This was advertised and I asked my wife about it. She said, well, it would be fun. I called [principal Brian Walsh] and inquired about it. I decided to apply and here I am.”

Leach’s assistant coach is Meagan Ramos, a former Noble of Berwick star who was named Miss Maine Softball in 2002 and went on to play at the University of Maine.

Ellsworth’s Smith steps down

The record for the Ellsworth girls varsity basketball team over the last few years doesn’t reflect how much fun Dana Smith said he had coaching the Eagles.

But after five years with as the head coach, Smith is stepping down to focus on his family and two other varsity coaching jobs, and also to “let someone else have a go at it.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to give it up,” said Smith, who is also the school’s head baseball and golf coach. “I’ve been coaching at least two varsity sports for a long time. It’s very time-consuming. … I still love it and I really enjoyed coaching the girls. It’s not a negative thing at all.”

Smith, who is employed by the Bangor Daily News as a motor route driver, took over the Ellsworth girls in the 2002-03 season after coaching the Sumner of East Sullivan boys basketball team.

His record with the Eagles was 39-54, although Ellsworth was 36-21 in Smith’s first three years. His most successful season with the team was in 2004-05 when the Eagles went 14-4 in the regular season and earned the No. 4 seed for the Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinals only to lose to fifth-ranked rival Mount Desert Island 38-37.

The program has logged just three wins in the past two seasons but Smith is optimistic for the future. The Eagles will bring back three starters in current sophomores Emily Lyons, Paige Saunders and Catherine Carter.

“I think over time these girls can turn it around, I really do,” he said. “The grammar school team had a very good season so I don’t think they’re too far away. And I think they can do it fairly quickly. It should be an attractive job.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.