Valley baseball coach Scott Laweryson gets the usual preseason questions about how his team looks and who the best teams in the league are. Laweryson’s response is simple: I’m not sure, because I’ve been watching softball for the last four years.

After four years coaching softball at Valley, Laweryson has switched over to baseball in Bingham.

“The opening was there, and my son plays on the baseball team,” he said. “I coached softball when my daughters were on the softball team.”

Laweryson’s son, Cody, is a junior at Valley and a standout on the Cavaliers and Madison Post 39 Legion teams. Scott’s daughters Jocelyn and Teagan also played at Valley.

Scott Laweryson said he feels Valley softball has improved over the last couple years, even though the Cavaliers were 2-13 last spring.

“I actually enjoyed coaching the girls softball team immensely,” he said. “It was a really tough decision, even though I don’t have any daughters on the team.”

One thing Laweryson won’t need an introduction to is the weather in Bingham this time of year. He checked out the baseball field last week, and figured the Cavaliers are at least a couple weeks from playing outside.

“I put on my fire boots, which go to almost my knee,” Laweryson said, “and I had snow going over the boots.”

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More than a dozen girls lacrosse teams from central and southern Maine will be at the Maine Lax Challenge, a preseason event scheduled for April 10 at Thomas College. Both of Thomas’ turf fields will be in use, with two 30-minutes games every half hour from 3:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Messalonskee, Cony, and Winslow are the local teams. Of course, Messalonskee plays often at Thomas, including playoff games.

“So far, we only have preseason stuff, and one regular season game scheduled there,” Messalonskee girls coach Ashley Pullen said. “It usually end s up being our ‘home away from home’ with the spring weather situation. We’re very, very fortunate to have a great relationship with Thomas, and the use of their field, which is incredible.”

The Eagles are the defending Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A champions, but still had a dip in numbers from last season. Several players who have eligibility remaining are injured, transferred, or concentrating on another sport.

“I’m not going to lie — I’m definitely disappointed,” Pullen said. “However, I know they put up the sign-up sheet at the middle school, and within a day, it was full. I always welcome players who are new to the game in high school.”

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Monday was the first day of high school practice in several sports, including tennis. For St. Dominic freshman Bethany Hammond of Belgrade, that means following up an outstanding freshman season in which she lost in the semifinals of the girls Round of 48 singles tournament.

Asked about her goals for this season, Hammond said, “I definitely want to have fun with it, but try to work as hard as I can, and just try my best.”

Hammond said she played with her coach once per week in Brunswick, and also did conditioning and weightlifting twice a week. She feels like her overall game has improved since the end of last season.

“I think so — well, I hope so,” she said. “It’s kind of hard to tell. I think overall, it’s gotten a lot better.”

Hammond is also optimistic about the St. Dom’s team, which went undefeated in the regular season last spring and had around twice as many players at Monday’s tryouts.

“I think everyone’s going to have a blast, and still improve at the same time,” she said.

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo

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