Now, she looks to add to her previous success as the 2025 season gets underway.

DeVinney will be assisted by three others in Mike Lyons (varsity assistant), Alyssa Stahly (JV coach) and Jayson Lose (JV assistant). The second-year coach lost a big number of letter winners from last season.

“We lost Carley Clarkson, Grace Novitsky, Madison Ripka, Maria Cotter, Sienna Barnhart and Mackenzie Ellenberger,” said DeVinney.

Bellefonte brings back a strong core from last year’s letterwinners such as Ragan Manning, Jaylee Lose, Taylor Brown, Alaina Smith and Sadie Ripka. Seniority is the direction that DeVinney will be looking for when it comes to providing leadership.

TIM WEIGHT/For The Express Bellefonte’s Sadie Ripka prepares for an at-bat during a recent game against Tyrone.

“The leadership for this year is going to come from the whole senior class. They have been playing for a long time and know the game well,” said DeVinney. “They have a lot that they can teach and share with all the younger girls. They are a great group of seniors who care a lot about their team and the program.”

A wave of new faces will be battling for some valuable playing time this season.

“We have a lot of underclassmen who are working hard to earn playing time on varsity,” said DeVinney. “They have been putting in the reps and the time to get better.”

According to DeVinney, the team’s strength this season will come from its offense.

“The strengths we have this year are powerful bats. They work really hard at being strong and consistent hitters. We also have over half of the defense as seniors, so they will be coming back with a lot of experience and talent as well,” said DeVinney. “We have a lot of underclassman talent as well that are going to be great to pair up with the senior class. We also have a long list of wonderful pitchers too.”

One of the biggest focuses in terms of growth is teamwork, something the Raiders worked on in the weeks leading up to the season.

“We are working on being one cohesive unit,” said DeVinney. “We have players in different defensive positions this year, so we just have to keep working on learning each other’s new roles.”

In terms of goals, the bar is high following last year’s success.

“The goals for this year are to win a district title and continue on into the state tournament,” said DeVinney. “We want to go farther than we did last year and continue to build a powerful and dominant program.”

The toughest teams that the coach sees being obstacles are former rivals from the newly defunct Mountain League.

“Some tough teams that we face this year are Penns Valley, Bald Eagle Area, Dubois and Huntingdon,” said DeVinney. “The teams that we face always show up to play and give it their all which makes it fun and competitive.”