WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Hartford High softball, present and future, was in rough shape when Danielle Tenney was hired as the program’s head coach in 2019.

The varsity Hurricanes had gone 14-35 the previous three seasons and it had been seven years since they’d won a playoff game. Perhaps worse, only seven girls total came out for the town recreation department’s teams in fourth, fifth and sixth grades. The middle school program wasn’t much better off.

A multiple-level rebuild was called for, the full success of which has only become evident this spring. Five starters graduated last year, the first group to play four years under Tenney, a former Steven High star and Fairfield (Conn.) University player whose tireless efforts have been rewarded.

Hartford might not capture its first state title this season, but that it’s remained a winner this long speaks to its leader’s devotion. The Hurricanes are 43-17 the last four seasons after Thursday night’s 7-2 defeat of Springfield at the Maxfield Sports Complex.

“When I talked to people in the community that first year, I heard that younger kids were getting into track and lacrosse instead of softball,” Tenney said. “I just wanted them to get excited about this sport and tell their friends.”

The current edition of the Hurricanes (5-1) features three freshmen and a sophomore who were among those recreation-level players so few in number they couldn’t field a team at the time of Tenney’s arrival in town. True, there are no seniors, but the coach suspects it’s because that class’ junior high seasons were severely curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hartford has five juniors and two sophomores on a 10-player varsity. The JV is mostly comprised of eighth-graders and the middle school team is all seventh-graders. Lebanon and Hanover also have limited high school numbers but neither program has so many middle schoolers waiting in the wings.

“It feels like I’m starting anew, because no one began this season with an assured position,” Tenney said. “That gives them freedom and opportunity to try new positions and skills, versus having to blend into a varsity team that already exists.”

Tenney recalls happening upon pick-up softball sessions at Maxfield spurred by the parents of elementary school students the first year she was hired. She introduced herself and began helping out. That led to individual lessons, often stacked one after the other on Sunday mornings.

The first summer concluded with a lighthearted “community game” under the varsity field’s lights, mixing players from the fourth to twelfth grades.

“The only place you can go at that point is up,” Tenney said. “It makes you feel good that the kids you planted that seed with stayed in it. It would have been hard to put in all that work and have them not stick around.”

The one who’s put in the hardest work might be junior pitcher SereniteeMartel, who struck out 14 Cosmos on Thursday. The junior righthander, in her second season as the Hurricanes’ lead pitcher, allowed six hits and two runs while walking one batter.

Martel was once a scatter-shot hurler with little confidence. Now a relaxed and powerful presence in the circle, she’s rewarded her parents’ faith and financial investment, playing at the club level during the summers, taking pitching lessons nearly year-round and spending hours firing away in her back yard.

“She deserves her success because she’s put in a ton of work on her own time. She clearly loves the sport because she’s still doing it,” Tenney said of a player who also competes in soccer and basketball for the Hurricanes. “You can’t just come out and pitch when the season starts. It’s a year-round job.”

Just like building and sustaining a softball program.

Notes: Marina Grassi, who preceded Martel as Hartford’s ace, recently finished her sophomore year at NCAA Division III Lasell College in Newton, Mass., just outside Boston. The outfielder has played in 13 games, primarily as a substitute fielder and runner. She’s now helping to coach the Hurricanes. Also on Lasell’s roster is former Woodstock standout Emma Tarleton, who batted .273 in 21 games this spring. The Lasers were 10-24 ... Martel took the circle for the seventh inning fiddling with one shoe. “I broke through the toe of my sock,” she commented. “Gotta cut those toenails!” hollered her grandmother, sitting behind the on-deck circle ... Martel and Lebanon standout AvaKaercher are club teammates in the summer, playing dozens of games around New England.

TrisWykes can be reached at ctwykes@aol.com.