School names its new softball coach

The Mountain Home School Board has selected Ron Nicolosi to be the new head softball coach of the Mountain Home Lady Tigers.

Nicolosi replaces Chris Asbury, who resigned from the position in September.

Asbury is pleased with the district's pick of Nicolosi to replace him.

"Much deliberation went into my decision (to resign), but at a certain point in your life, family comes first, and my daughter is number one. To see her requires a little bit more travel now, but the program's in good hands now with Ron there to take over the reins. I feel comfortable with that.

"He's a great coach... and has a great rapport with the girls, so everything just kind of fit for me to step aside and let Ron take over."

Nicolosi has been an assistant coach of the Lady Tiger softball team three of the past four years and is excited about his new job, which he says isn't that new.

"I took that year off (2010) going to Afghanistan, however I was so happy to be back with the girls last year and with Coach Asbury. We had a good year (last year), a little disappointing, but we were happy with what we saw."

Nicolosi is looking forward to starting his own program.

"Coach Asbury left a great mark on the program -- big shoes to fill, obviously -- I'm really proud to have worked with him and learned a lot from him, and I think I can carry that forward and get back to where we belong, which is an appearance at state.

Nicolosi says fans may see a different brand of Lady Tigers softball.

"We're going to change it up a little bit," he said. "We've got some speed on the team that's coming back, so we want to utilize that. We may play a little smaller ball than we have in the past, but we've got some girls that can also hit the ball hard, so we want to utilize that."

Nicolosi hopes the Lady Tigers can return to state this year after a two-year absence.

"We're playing in a tough conference," he said. "If you look at last year's state, one, two and three were from our district and our conference, so we know where we're at, but we're right there with them, so we can compete."