The Cougars took care of their business with no blemishes on their resume – undefeated business.
Kenton Ridge beat Hillsboro 9-0 on Thursday afternoon at Akron Firestone Stadium to claim the first state softball title in Clark County history, finishing a perfect 32-0 season.
“I think we finished the business today,” said Cougars coach Sarah Schalnat after the victory. “That was our thing. That’s what we said. They accomplished the goal.”
The state championship win was decades in the making. Schalnat played on the Cougars first two state tournament teams in 1997 and 98, served as an assistant coach in 2003 under former KR coach Ed Foulk and was the head coach in the team’s most recent state final appearance in 2013.
This year’s roster includes children and relatives of several former KR softball alums. Foulk - who went 462-156 from 1987 to 2009 - has served as an assistant coach over the last several seasons. His granddaughter Lily is a freshman second baseman.
“You know how Foulk is. He’s funny. He says, ‘I’ve been here five times as the head coach and I didn’t win it. You’ve been here three times and you win it,’” Schalnat said. “I said, ‘Well, actually, we’re here and we won it together.’ He’s here and he’s a part of it also. I’ve had a great coaching staff with me. We wouldn’t be here without them and the hard work that they put in, too, with all of our practices and all the things that they help us do.”
The climb to the state championship started in 2021. The Cougars played in a district title that season and improved by one more game each year – they won a district title in 22, advanced to a regional final in 23 and won a regional title last season, falling to eventual state champion Canfield in the D-II state semifinal.
After Wednesday’s dramatic 4-3 walk-off victory over Lexington in a D-IV state semifinal, Schalnat was reminded of the team’s recent run of success. She wanted to break through for a state title win – breaking the pattern of losing in the next game.
“I was like, I don’t want to follow the pattern because the pattern is that we come back tomorrow and be on the opposite side of today,” Schalnat said. “I feel like these kids, even this morning when they got up for stretching, their bodies, their faces and everything, they were confident in themselves. That’s what they’ve had all year.”
The journey, however, prepared them for Thursday’s state title game, said Cougars senior Kyleigh Schnitzler. Every time they took the field during their unbeaten run, they knew they were going to get each team’s best game.
“After last season, we knew we had a big target on our back,” Schnitzler said. “Every win we got, it got bigger and bigger and bigger. We showed that no matter how big that target is, that we can pull through and win as a team.”
Schalnat praised Schnitzler and fellow senior Kyanne Tyson for their “awesome” leadership.
“We couldn’t have done it without them,” she said.
After Thursday’s loss, Hillsboro coach Gary Breeden praised the Cougars program for being one of the best he’s seen during his career.
“I went up and watched Kenton Ridge a couple times, I’ve seen them live and watched a lot of tape,” he said. “There’s a reason that the Coaches Association voted them the No. 1 team in the state right out of the get-go. They’re a very classy organization as far as the program goes. The coaches do a phenomenal job. They’re all good kids. I’ve seen them play and I’ve watched them, the way that they handled themselves after those games. I’ve seen some teams be pretty (unsportsmanlike) when they win by 10, 15, 20. They went through the line and were picking the other team up. Kenton Ridge is one of the top-10 programs that I’ve ever seen and I’ve been doing this since the late 90s, so I’ve seen a lot.”
The seniors hope the Cougars run of success won’t end anytime soon, Schnitzler said.
“If they keep grinding and keep working and have the same determination that they had this year, these girls can go far this year and the year after,” Schnitzler said. “With the group of girls coming up as seniors, they can hold it down pretty well. They’re pretty good leaders on and off the field. No matter what, they’re there for each other. They can continue with the sisterhood that we have and they can take them far.”
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