Several of her players have also played softball year-round, and that has helped the West program a lot, Walker said.
"They are very committed to softball," she said. "They play summer and fall ball; they hit the weight room three times a week and we're finally maturing enough to our varsity team is made up of basically of sophomores, juniors and seniors."
It's taken the Lady Colts' team a period of several years to build up a fast-pitch program, and with each passing year, the results speak for themselves.
"Three years ago, we won five games, two years ago, we won 12, and last year, we won 19," Walker said. "It's been a steady improvement."
The big question heading into the season is the new district and region realignments which has shuffled the deck a bit.
"We don't know about the district because we're all new now," Walker said. "Every time we played one of the teams in basketball, I've tried to check them out to see what they might have."
Senior Amanda Elliott believes playing in a new district will make the 2006 season more interesting for the Lady Colts.
"It's exciting," she said. "Facing new teams is going to be a new challenge for us."
So instead of fixating on the new aligned district, Walker is only focusing on things that are within her control - the Lady Colts themselves.
The success of the Lady Colt basketball team has caused a delay in assessing her team, but she expects each position to be hotly contested.
"It's hard to talk about positions when I haven't had everyone out," she said. "In almost every position, we have two girls that are vying pretty hard."
Elliott agreed.
"We have so much talent," she said. "It's just getting out and practicing and getting all of that talent out of these girls."
Walker isn't overly concerned about the basketball players because she knows what they've been doing to stay in playing shape.
"They're in shape, and I'm not going to say they're that much behind because I know that they're in shape," she said. "They've hit one night a week on different days, so at least they've had a bat in their hand."
West Jessamine's regular season began March 27 at Tates Creek.
