Discovery Canyon is a new high school with new sports teams, new
coaches and new players.

So it probably should have been no surprise to the school’s new
softball coach, Tanya Ramsay, when she called for team tryouts and
only three girls showed up after school.

Her thoughts were, “So, OK, we have to have nine. This won’t
work.”

But Ramsay made it work. Just finishing its first season,
Discovery Canyon now fields a team of young women with desire,
teamwork and spirit and some first year wins on the
scoreboard.

And yes, she now has more than nine players.

Ramsay’s passion for the sport of softball is infectious – a
passion that took root growing up in her sports-minded family in La
Junta.

“I had two older brothers who played baseball,” she said. “My
oldest brother played on the Triple-A Toledo Mudhens and went on to
pitch some games with the Detroit Tigers in the 90’s.

“I have another older brother who played baseball at CSU in Fort
Collins. We are all first generation college students and all of us
earned academic and athletic scholarships. I played on some small
teams in a small community so every weekend I was around baseball
or softball.”

Ramsay knows what it’s like to be one of the first players
joining a new team. Her freshman class started the first softball
program at La Junta High School.

And she knows what it takes to build a successful team quickly.
The La Junta team qualified for the state playoffs in her senior
year and Ramsay was selected as an All-State Player.

With scholarship in hand, she stayed in La Junta and attended
Otero Junior College, another first-year softball program. After
two-years, Ramsay transferred to the University of Southern
Colorado, now CSU-Pueblo.

In 2001, her team was ranked the seventh-best Division II team
in the nation. Ramsay played shortstop all four years in college
and ended with a .333 batting average.

After graduation, she could not stay away from the game – it was
in her blood.

“I missed playing and I knew I wanted to coach,” she
said.

After volunteering with the UCCS team in 2002, Ramsay became
part of the staff the next year and is now the UCCS softball top
assistant coach.

“It’s a part time position that feels like full time,” she
said.

From August to October her team plays fall ball with about 15
scrimmages. From October to December, she helps condition
individual players, often starting the programs at six in the
morning. Then, the real season starts with a 50-to 55-game schedule
ending in May.

“First, I just have a passion for the game,” she said. “Second,
I love working with young kids, seeing their growth on and off the
field as young women.”

If that busy schedule is not enough, she’s also a private
instructor working with many young kids in the area while working
on a masters degree with a goal to become a high school teacher,
and of course, to continue coaching.

So, why Discovery Canyon, a new school that can only field three
girls her first day of team practice?

“For the last couple of years I have looked for a head coaching
job,” Ramsay said. “My husband, Aaron, and I love Colorado Springs
and we have a new home about two blocks from the Discovery Canyon
softball field. So I thought, great school, field nearby and I
applied and got the position.”

Her players have responded to her dedication to the sport and to
them as young women. “After the first day, I told the girls to tell
all of their friends to come out,” Ramsay said. “Word of mouth
worked. The next day we had nine and by the end of the week we had
11 – a team.”

And it’s a team that made big progress this year.

“We played six games this year and beat Air Academy’s JV team
and Rampart’s freshmen team,” she said. “That’s with eight girls
who had never played softball before.”

Mairaed Gillooli and Devyn Heldmann are two of Ramsay’s new
players.

“Coach T spends her afternoons with us – giving us all of her
time,” Gillooli said. “She cares about us and makes us feel we can
win. I know I go into games knowing we have a chance – it makes me
feel pretty accomplished.

“We do make mistakes. Coach T always says, ‘You’re killing me!’
One time, when we missed a steal sign, she started jumping up and
down and waving her arms like a monkey and screaming run, run as
loud as she could.”

Ramsay’s style has also inspired some of her UCCS players to
help with the Discovery Canyon team. Ramsay’s assistant, Sonia
McMahon, is one of her former UCCS players.

Discovery Canyon Athletic Director Sharon Lauer calls Ramsay “a
coach with a heart for the game.”

There are now 11 young softball players at Discovery Canyon who
feel the same way.