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4C McDonald County Press Thursday, August 25, 2022 F a l l S p o r t S p r e v i e w • Career Opportunities • Competitive Pay • Great Benefits • Full-Time and Part-Time Positions Available Noel Complex 1 Tyson Avenue • Noel, MO 64854 417-475-3181 Have a great season! ANDERSON — Heath Alumbaugh realizes his McDonald County softball team enters the 2022 season as one of the favorites in the Big 8 Conference after finishing 24-7 overall last year and losing to Webb City, 4-3, in the district championship game. He's hoping the workmanlike approach his squad showed during summer work- outs will carry over into the new season and keep the Lady Mustangs stampeding ahead of the pack. "We have a good mix of speed and power in the lineup, but really overall what I like is our businesslike approach we've had in practice," said the McDon- ald County coach. "It's not been flashy, it's not been anything spectacular, not a lot of extra chatter, just very businesslike. It's like: 'Take care of business, do what we need to do and get stuff done.' We're ready to go." Alumbaugh, who is entering his third season as head coach of the Lady Mustangs and 18th year overall as a coach at the school from which he graduated in 2001, said the workmanlike mentality will be key as the Lady Mustangs face a season made up of a lot of games in a condensed period of time. "We're allowed to play 36 games, but it's in a six-week period," he said. "But a lot of times we're playing four and five times a week, so if you don't have that worker's mentality, that blue collar mentality, you can get into a lot of trouble and it can spiral very quickly. I really like seeing that 'let's go to work' mentality because it lets me know we're going to have that this season, especially when it becomes Bennett Horne McDonald County Press bhorne@nwaonline.com Lady Mustangs Looking To Take Care Of Business BENNETT HORNE/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS The 2022 McDonald County High School softball team returns seven seniors from last season's team that finished 24-7. SEE SOFTBALL PAGE 5C