Burlingame’s softball team kicked off the season with enthusiasm in early February. As of March 1, the team has played two non-league games, winning first against Mercy High School (7-5) and second against Leigh High School (12-3). 

Leading up to these wins, the team held tryouts from Feb. 1-8 to assign junior varsity and varsity teams.

“[For tryouts], we always started off with warming up. And then some days we [focused] more on tryout things like running the bases and actually batting off of a pitcher,” Emmi Cate said. “The first two days, it was both junior varsity and varsity together, trying out, so it was a lot of just fielding because it was so big — there were so many of us.”

Cate has been playing softball since kindergarten with recreational teams like the Burlingame Flames All-Star Program. Sophomore Kasey Lyons, who is a pitcher and outfielder, also played with the Flames, and later, moved to club teams. 

With players with different levels of experience, the team has made progress from previous seasons, when there was a single varsity team. Cate recognizes improvements from last year’s team and expects a successful season. 

“I feel like this year, compared to last year, the whole lineup for batting is pretty solid. Which is so great because last year, it was struggling, and now I feel like we have a good foundation,” Cate said. 

One of the three coaches of the softball team, Mitchell Oliver, previously coached on several club travel teams like ​​NorCal Blitz, NorCal Blast and Top Nine Sports. Oliver also has three daughters who played for Burlingame in the past, which is a big reason why he enjoys coaching. 

Allie Condon, the assistant coach, is spending her first year as a coach with a lot of new players. She graduated from Burlingame only a couple of years ago, in 2020.

“I’m coming back to help coach and… I’m really excited,” Condon said. “I love coming back to the school and just being able to give back. I loved playing softball here.”