NORWICH — Megan Sobel knows as well as anyone that softball is not a marquee sport at Hanover High.

Since becoming the school’s athletic director in 2018, Sobel has overseen championship teams in soccer, hockey, tennis and much more. The softball program, meanwhile, last made the playoffs three years before Sobel’s arrival.

So when former head coach Mariruth Graham moved to Florida after compiling a 10-51 record in four seasons, there weren’t a lot of candidates clamoring to replace her. With time running out before the start of preseason practices, Sobel — who played softball at Smith College and Lafayette College — decided to take the job herself.

“We had some people who were potentially interested, but they couldn’t really do it full-time, and they didn’t have softball experience,” Sobel said. “I’m such an advocate for (female) coaches coaching women’s teams that I just felt like I needed to step up and do it.”

Primarily an administrator during her professional career, Sobel spent 15 years as Dartmouth College’s senior associate athletic director. But she does have some coaching experience, primarily with her kids’ baseball and basketball teams, and she also coached high school field hockey while pursuing her graduate degree at the University of Iowa.

Softball has long been near to her heart, though — it was among the sports Sobel oversaw at Dartmouth, and she spent a few years on the NCAA Division I softball committee, helping select the NCAA tournament field and working the Women’s College World Series.

Her current balancing act was made easier when Hanover added an assistant athletic director position last summer, which is filled by boys basketball coach Ben Davis. Sobel has three assistant coaches, a luxury Graham did not enjoy last year as the only coach on the Bears’ staff.

“Having four coaches has been invaluable,” Sobel said.

“We’re doing a lot of station work and just trying to break down stuff, particularly for some of the beginners, but also giving the older players a little bit more. We got a new batting cage this year, so that’s been a huge help.”

Hanover had five seniors on the roster last year, but this team, which was run-ruled in each of its first two games against Fall Mountain and Pelham, does not have any. The six juniors — twins Emma and Abby Campfield, Jessica Lobb, Bella Hunt, Rhea Veerareddy and Sophie Wise — have had to step up as leaders in the dugout and on the field.

Lobb, who started in the pitcher’s circle both Thursday and Friday, said she had never pitched in practice before this year because with only one coach, the team was never able to split up. This year, the pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders have had much more time to work on position-specific drills, and everyone has had the chance to hit in the cage off the pitching machine.

“(Sobel) really likes to make sure everyone gets in a lot of work,” Lobb said. “She likes to try a lot of people at a lot of different positions. She’s super competitive, and she hides it a little until we’re in the game. She’s serious in practice, she wants us to be focused, but she’s rooting for us.”

Sobel’s administrative responsibilities have cut into the time she can spend observing Hanover’s other spring teams — baseball, lacrosse, tennis, track and field and crew — but Lobb said Sobel thinks about the softball team constantly even during school hours, tinkering with different batting orders and defensive alignments on the magnetic board she keeps in her office and in the dugout.

Emma Campfield, who made a couple of nice defensive plays at shortstop Friday, said she and several of her teammates were hoping Sobel would step in as head coach because of their existing relationship with her, and they reacted with excitement when the news came out that she would be doing so.

“A lot of us are close with Megan. Her door is always open; she knows we all feel comfortable going in and talking with her,” Campfield said. “She’s one of the coolest and most awesome staff members at the school, and she does her job so well. She’s one of the best people I’ve ever met.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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