Illiana Christian senior third baseman Lauren Sherwood didn’t hesitate.

An influential senior class graduated last year, and 13 freshmen are among the 21 players on the roster this season. That presents a challenge for any program, but particularly for a successful one, so Sherwood understood what she had to do.

“I really just want to develop into a leader for the team, especially being one of four seniors on the team,” she said. “We all want to lead. We want to communicate. We want to bring the younger girls up.

“We’ve all been working into those leadership roles. That’s really my goal, not really even softball-wise.”

Sherwood, senior middle infielder Lydia VanderWoude and senior outfielder Adeline Mulder have borne the bulk of the burden.

“It’s really been an adjustment,” Sherwood said. “There’s a ton of new freshmen, a lot of freshmen on varsity. Us older girls who have been in the program longer are really trying to build them up. We’re just looking to keep building the program.

“Obviously the goal is to win, and we’re working really hard toward that.”

Sherwood has embraced the process.

“Every year, we do three core values for the team to work toward,” she said. “This year, it’s ownership, fight and discipline. That’s what us three seniors are especially trying to teach the younger kids. This is who we want to be as a program. We want to go out every game and every practice and show people this without them having to ask. Without them even knowing, we want to show them these three things.

“It’s been going really well. Those are the three big things for us, and it’s been super fun to see them play out, to see how the girls are really doing them.”

Sherwood has impressed Illiana Christian coach Nicole Terpstra-Wondaal, whose team has won at least a share of the Greater South Shore Conference title in each of the three seasons in which it has been a member and won a sectional title in 2022.

“She’s amazing,” Terpstra-Wondaal said. “One of the best attributes when I think about Lauren is her joyful attitude, just her joyful presence. With the younger kids, we have so many freshmen, and Lauren and the other seniors are doing such a really good job of leading the team and getting the freshmen acclimated to our standard to how we do things in the program. What a blessing to have her, Adeline and Lydia. It’s a gift.

“She’s just stepped in wonderfully. We’ve been fortunate because the class that graduated ahead of them had been in a leadership role for years, so this class didn’t really have to step up and be the vocal leaders. We were so heavy on upperclassmen last year. Now this year, we’re heavy on underclassmen, so we really needed these girls to become vocal, and they’ve done a really, really good job. I’m so proud of them.”

VanderWoude, a Belmont recruit, said Sherwood has learned to adjust to circumstances over the course of her high school career.

“Lauren is a very coachable person,” VanderWoude said. “She moved from the outfield to the infield last year, and I know she was a little hesitant. But she has grown so much in the game, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. I love being around her, and she never stops making anyone around her laugh.”

Sherwood hit .313 last season, which was her first at third base. She was an outfielder on the junior varsity team as a freshman and started in left field for the Vikings as a sophomore.

“It was a transition, but I love it,” Sherwood said. “It was really tricky. But I was super prepared for it through the coaches. They encouraged me so much. I did make mistakes, as everyone makes mistakes. But they really helped me through it. I got a lot of one-on-one time, especially with coach Nicole, and then with coach Desiree (Mulder), who’s coach Nicole’s sister, in travel ball, and she also coaches here.

“It was a hard transition, but it definitely was good. I actually love the infield a lot more. It has more action, and third base, it’s hit at you so hard, you don’t have reaction time. For me personally, I get anxious, so it just comes to me and I don’t really have time to mess up. I don’t overthink it.”

Sherwood has put a lot of thought into her future, however. She intends to study actuarial science in college and is considering Purdue or Calvin. She laughed about the contrast between those two schools.

Sherwood has different emotions about deciding not to play softball in college.

“This is my last year, which I’m super bummed about,” she said. “I love softball. But it doesn’t last forever. Softball eventually ends for everyone.

“The coaches in this program teach us softball, and we all want to win. But not everyone is going to graduate and play softball. They want to help make us better people and prepare us for the world, and softball is just a vehicle to help drive us there.”

Terpstra-Wondaal has the highest confidence that Sherwood, whose older brother Isaac was a standout basketball player and golfer before graduating last year and whose younger brother Nathan is a freshman and promising basketball player, will indeed be prepared.

“She’s a very intelligent girl,” Terpstra-Wondaal said. “Her class schedule is insane — AP, honors, all of it. She’s managing to take that high level of classes and play softball at a high level. Not easy to do, not easy to do at all.

“She comes from a great family, very supportive brothers, parents. I’m just very proud of her.”