NATCHEZ — Falana McDaniel was teaching her business education class at Natchez High School when she heard students talking about the upcoming softball season.

Little did she know, she would soon be coaching them. Natchez High girls basketball coach Alphaka Moore, who also coached the softball team last year, decided against coaching the softball team in 2015 because she felt it was too difficult to coach both basketball and softball back-to-back.

The vacancy caused principal Willis Smith to approach McDaniel about coaching the team in 2015.

“I’m really excited,” McDaniel said. “We had 50-something girls show up to tryouts, and of course, we only had 18 uniforms. But I was able to choose 24 of them to form a team.”

McDaniel coached softball in McComb from 2009-2013 before moving to Natchez. McDaniel will take over a team that did not win a game last season.

Regardless, she feels confident that this crop of players have enough talent to compete in 2015.

“We have a lot of returning players, and I’ve seen a lot of great talent coming up,” McDaniel said.

Natchez will have its first scrimmage of the season Feb. 24.