ROGERS -- Tiffany Taylor acknowledged her team's performance might have been a bit of surprise this season, but the work of Brittney Dean was not.
"I expected Brittney to come in and hit, and I expected her to be solid defensively," said Taylor, the Rogers Heritage softball coach. "I expected her to step into a leadership role on this team. She's met or even exceeded my expectations with that, and that's been huge for this team."
The junior outfielder has done exactly that, hitting over .400 for the third consecutive season and leading the team with a .417 average and 19 RBIs. She's also been a driving force on and off the field to help the Lady War Eagles (19-7) earn the No. 2 seed out of the 7A-West and a first-round bye at the state tournament, which begins Thursday at Bryant.
Heritage will take on the North Little Rock-Fayetteville winner at 12:30 p.m. Friday in a quarterfinal matchup.
Taylor has seen Dean's confidence increase after starting the past two seasons.
"Coming in as a freshman, even though she hit over .400, she still had that freshman factor to her," Taylor said. "Where she was a little timid, a little hesitant. Last year, I saw her get more comfortable in her role. This year, even more so as she's stepped up to be one of our team captains."
Taylor did some leadership training sessions with her three captains, and a more confident Dean has stepped forward this season on the field and in the locker room.
"I have definitely seen her become more outgoing," Taylor said. "She's been more aggressive on the bases for sure."
Dean admitted she started slow at the plate but hit her stride pretty quickly.
"I struggled a little in the beginning but have progressed in the middle," Dean said. "I think I was just anxious and had to relax at the plate."
But Dean said she's made lots of progress as a leader, as well as maturing as a person and a player. Dean said being a leader meant paying attention to her behavior at all times.
"I needed to work on my attitude; coach always says you can never have a bad day as a leader," Dean said. "Where you always have to be positive, do your best, go 100 percent all the time because somebody's always watching you. I've tried to be more conscious of those things."
The Lady War Eagles are hoping to make a deep run in the state tournament thanks to Dean's work on and off the field this season.
Sports on 05/11/2016