Belleville+Softball

The Mighty Maroon Softball team is a female athletic team in the 3A conference in southern Illinois that originates at Belleville West highschool. The team is made up of both a varsity and junior varsity squad. Currently, the head coach for the varsity team is Kelly Creek, a graduate of Belleville East. The varsity team is also aided by Robert Flake, who is also the head junior varsity football coach, and Janet Switzer. The junior varsity team is headed by Casey Garrett, who is both a former Belleville West graduate and a former professional softball player. She is aided by Danielle Koishor, who also heads Freshman Volleyball, and Tom Ninnis who has been helping the program thrive since it originated in 1978. In the beginning, as softball teams began to spring up in the surrounding area, Belleville West finally added Softball to its list of athletic programs in 1978. The first head coach of the varsity team was Tom Ninnis. Ninnis was head coach for 17 years, and has since helped to coach. He had a total of 408 wins in his career and 88 losses. Originally, the team was only a varsity squad who played on Union’s school field for practice (softball did not obtain its own field until the movement of schools). Around 60 interested young women tried out, which led to the eventually expansion into a junior varsity team. The first season the Belleville West Maroons had a record of 6-11. The following year they managed to obtain their first winning season. The team continued to achieve success, obtaining the achievement of 20 wins in 1981 and the first state appearance in 1982. In 1986 the team went to state and finished second overall, a huge accomplishment for the new team. The team was, after Ninnis stepped down in 1995, taken over by Bob Yagge. Yagge continued to influence respect for the program and continued the long streak of success the female athletes had under Ninnis until 2009. Coach Kelly Creek is the new varsity Coach, and the first head varsity coach, for the Belleville West Maroons. This page was created by Becky Killian and Lauren Ruser
 * = Regional Championships ||= Sectional Championship ||= State Tournament Appearances ||
 * = 1981 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 1982 ||= 1982 ||= 0-1 (Record) ||
 * = 1985 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 1986 ||= 1986 ||= 2-1 2nd Place ||
 * = 1992 ||= 1992 ||= 1-2 4th place ||
 * = 1993 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 1997 ||= 1997 ||= 1-2 4th place ||
 * = 1999 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 2000 ||= 2000 ||= 0-1 ||
 * = 2001 ||= 2001 ||= 1-1-1 3rd place (tie) ||
 * = 2002 ||= 2002 ||= 2-1 3rd place ||
 * = 2003 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 2004 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 2005 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 2006 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 2007 ||= - ||= - ||
 * = 2008 ||= - ||= - ||
 * Summary**
 * History **