Kingwood Park logged a lot of miles on the road the last couple seasons.
Playing in Region II-5A for two seasons (the Panthers are gratefully back in Region III starting this year) forced the team onto the bus for long stints, not only during district play, but in a memorable playoff run last spring.
It was in Rusk – a nearly 300-mile round trip bus ride – where the Panthers took the eventual state champions to the limit.
After a 4-1 start to the playoffs, Kingwood Park took a pair of one-run losses to the Melissa Cardinals in the regional quarterfinals. Three weeks later, Melissa was crowned Class 5A state champions in Austin.
Second year head coach Lindsey Gregory, a Kingwood native and former Mustang softball player, felt like her Panthers left their mark. Especially for a team that scraped into the playoffs with a fourth place finish in district play.
“I think we surprised some people,” Gregory said. “I think that everyone expected us to go in there and just kind of roll over for them and that’s not the mentality that we have here. We’re fighters. That’s what they’ve been taught since Day 1.”
The Panthers went 23-13, its third consecutive 20-plus win season. Kingwood Park has been to the playoffs every season played since 2014 and its third round appearance was its fifth time ever.
“This year, I think we’re really looking forward and are trying to do better than last year,” Kingwood Park senior Abbey Papadimitriou said. “We’re always using ways to get better and things to grow from. I think we’re just focusing on our new district and take it step by step.”
Papadimitriou, a four-year varsity letterwinner and Sam Houston State recruit, is looking to take her leadership role to the next level in her final season as a Panther.
“I feel old now,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve learned a lot over the past four years. The seniors (all three previous years) taught me a lot. So I’ve kind of grown into them and now I’m ready to make my own imprint on the rest of the underclassmen.”
Gregory, who’s coaching alongside her twin sister Lacy and Connor Grant, has had to retool the roster a little bit.
“We did lose quite a bit after last season,” Gregory said. “We lost five starters – a pitcher, catcher, second base, shortstop and center field. But we’re confident in the young talent coming up.”
The battery, middle infield and center field spots are among the most important for a softball program to build around.
In the circle, the team will hand the ball to Allie Minick, a sophomore who was named district Newcomer of the Year as a freshman.
“In the limited innings she did pitch, she really made a statement,” Gregory said. “She did a good job complementing Erika (Savage). But moving forward, we feel confident with her as our No. 1 and we think that she’ll surprise some people.”
Junior Haylee Seals will be leaned on heavily as well to get the Panthers through innings.
Returning along with Papadimitriou in the infield are junior outfielder Ava Klinefelter and senior outfielder Addi Gomez.
Klinefelter was second team All-District last year while Papadimitriou was honorable mention.
“Ava was second-team All-District and then you have Abbey Papadimitriou,” Gregory said. “Both have really been the heartbeat of our offense – not just since I’ve been here, but even before that. Ava’s going to steal a ton of bases and Abby’s usually going to knock her in.”
Gomez is a four-year letterwinner and is playing her final season of organized softball as she plans to declare pre-med in college.
“It’s bittersweet,” Gomez said. “I’m still a freshman in my mind. It’s my last year ever playing softball.”
Along with Minick, Gregory mentioned Samantha Barnes and Kaylee Brown, a pair who pushed for varsity time at the end of last season and made starts in the playoffs.
“We have three sophomores in particular (who are rising up),” Gregory said. “Allie, she’ll be our No. 1. She did get quite a few innings last year, which we feel good about. We have some experience, but we are a young team. Young teams can sometimes back silly mistakes.”
“We’re young, but age is just a number,” Papadimitriou added. “We have a lot of experience on our team. Just working together – and we’ve done a great job in the offseason bonding and trusting each other. I think as long as we take that into the season, we’ll do just fine.”
Kingwood Park is graciously exiting District 16-5A, which took the team on journeys as far away as Nacogodches, Lufkin and Huntsville with closer trips such as Dayton and Porter also on the schedule.
“It was crazy traveling two and three hours away for district games, especially the playoffs,” Papadimitriou said. “Those were far games. I think that we’re going to use that to our advantage being closer. It’s less traveling, but last year we did a lot of traveling in district, which helped us in the playoffs.”
Gregory said she warned about the schedule in taking the job at Kingwood Park in the 2023-24 offseason.
“It was brutal, right?,” Gregory said. “When I got the job, they said we’d be traveling quite a bit. And in the long run, I think it did help us in the playoffs. We were in Madisonville, we were in Corsicana…we were all over the place. So I think it was a mindset, but this is what we do. We are going to be tired, we’re going to have a long bus ride. We’re gonna show up and get off the bus and we’re going to kick your butt.”
Kingwood Park now has much more manageable trips in District 18-6A. The Panthers will play home and away with Porter, West Fork, Splendora, Dayton, Crosby and Pasadena.
“It’ll be nice to head over to West Fork (right across Highway 59) and not be in the bus all night,” Gregory said. “That’ll be nice.”
It should be a challenging district, too.
Crosby, where Gregory served as an assistant prior to her arrival at Kingwood Park, will be among the teams on schedule the Panthers are looking forward to.
“Coming from Crosby – that’s where I was for four years – I’m familiar with the talent,” Gregory said. “Tori Dahnke is a stud and she just committed (to Idaho State). So super happy for them, but I will be happy to go over there and hopefully take care of business.”
Gomez is feeling positive about her team’s chances to make some noise.
“We have a lot of really good hitters,” Gomez said. “We can really see the ball. Just in practice, when we’re going through live hitting, you can tell that’s our thing. We also have a strong infield and our pitcher, she’s amazing and she’s just a sophomore. We just have a great team.”
At the end of the day, high school athletics is about memories made and bonding with your team. Gomez feels like this will be a special year.
“I’m really excited going into the season,” she said. “I think the offseason, we were looking really good. We did a whole bunch of team bonding, so I think our team is really close knit. I think that’ll help us throughout the season.”
Gregory enjoys the mix the team has.
“We have a lot of personality,” she said. “They are young and goofy. Everyone has been asking me, ‘How do you think your team is going to be?’ and I’ve described them as young, but eager. They just want to get in there and get their hands dirty. Fail full speed. We’re going to mess things up, we’re not going to be perfect. But fail (at) full speed giving 100% effort in everything we do.”
Kingwood Park softball players (from left) Ava Klinefelter, Abbey Papadimitriou, Allie Minick and Addi Gomez pose for a photo at media day back in January. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
