Rock Bridge hunting for back-to-back district championships
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Rock Bridge is maintaining its high expectations ahead of the new season.
The Bruins have wrapped up their first week of practices in preparation for the 2025 campaign, working with their sights set on a second straight district title.
Head Coach Lisa Alvis has built and sustained a winning culture within the school's softball program. Rock Bridge has recorded at least 27 wins in each of the last six seasons, including three district crowns, three Final Four appearances and one state championship during that stretch.
Coach Alvis credits weight training and fundamentals as critical factors in her team's consistent success. However, Alvis and her players view district championships as the program's standard, rather than 27-win seasons.
"I think the weight room is a big piece. The weight room allows us to get stronger, allows us to have injury prevention and just be able to play that long 36-game schedule, and then hopefully, more throughout the postseason," Alvis said. "The wins are great, but we all know that our goal is always a district championship. So, just trying to make that our standard, and use the games up until that as like practice games. That's like the test, right? So, just continuing the weight room, continuing fundamentals, continuing to take care of our bodies, and just reiterate that to our kids."
In addition to a 32-win campaign, Rock Bridge's returning talent also got a glimpse at competing for a state title last year. The Bruins fell just one win short of its second state championship in program history last season, losing to Lafayette (Wildwood) in extra innings. Despite the result, that experience is extremely valuable, but the Bruins are not overlooking the difficult district tournament that awaits them at the end of the regular season.
"I'm sure the kids talk about it, but we just keep reinforcing district championship, district championship, that's the goal. If we're fortunate to get past that, then we'll reassess where we're at," Alvis said. "This is probably the most depth that I've had in a few years, and so, it's exciting to have the kids that have had that experience, who understand what the grind is, because it's a fast season, and they know what's expected and how we work to get there."
Although Rock Bridge has enjoyed an impressive six-season stretch, Coach Alvis has encouraged her players to avoid complacency and stay focused on improving at every opportunity.
"I think the message is that we just got to continue to work hard. It feels like we always have a target on our back because of the expectations, the standards that people have set in this program," Alvis said. "The message is continue to fight, continue to work hard, because the moment that you don't, someone's going to catch you. We never want that to happen. We want to keep our foot on the gas and just continue to give our best effort."
While Rock Bridge graduated several talented seniors from last year's team, including Addie Morris, Bella Stephens, Annabelle Head and Jessie Sullivan, the Bruins also brought back multiple key players. Coach Alvis highlighted Ava Bush, Kennedy Watson and Hayden Bush as three of the team's top returning hitters. She's also expecting Watson, Lauren Christ and Keelee Hagler to lead Rock Bridge's pitching staff this season. However, one quality that this year's entire roster shares is competitiveness.
"I have a bunch of kids who want to win, and have a bunch of kids who I feel trust myself and our coaching staff that we're going to get them ready to do that. We're not ready yet, but we shouldn't be. It's only practice number five," Alvis said. "Just the mindset of being able to come out, work hard, do things fundamentally the right way, being disciplined in what we do and the attention-to-detail, I think is what's going to be important for us moving forward."
Rock Bridge opens its 2025 season at home against Centralia on Aug. 28 at 4 p.m.
