Lauren Pilgram (right), former Flame, Dutchgirl and Blue Jay, will now have black and green as her school colors as head softball coach of the North Callaway Thunderbird softball team. North Callaway High School is located off of Interstate 70 in Kingdom City, Mo.

Former Dutchgirl catcher Lauren Pilgram was recently named the new head softball coach of the Thunderbird softball program at North Callaway High School.

“We first interviewed for the job in April and we had to wait for 4-6 weeks before we found out,” Pilgram said. “I finally found out I got the job two weeks before school was out when I was called into the principal’s office.”

Along with her softball coaching duties, Pilgram also teaches Physics, Integrated Math, ACT Prep and Geometry at North Callaway.

In her first summer of coaching the Thunderbirds, they went 5-1 with their only loss coming when Pilgram played her junior varsity squad against Rock Bridge’s (Columbia) varsity team.

Replacing Michelle Schaper, Pilgram will inherit a team that finished second in Class 3 last year to Webb City. She’ll have the daunting task of replacing seven starters that graduated from last years’ team.

“We have 22 girls out for the team this season and we have the skill and talent to be able to compete with anyone on our schedule,” Pilgram explained. “We may have lost a lot of varsity experience to graduation, but I feel we have the drive and passion for the game to compensate for that.”

Pilgram’s Thunderbirds will visit Gasconade County on Thursday, Oct. 2, when North Callaway will face Hermann’s Lady Bearcats at 4:30 p.m., in Hermann.

As an OHS senior, Pilgram had a .369 on base percentage, a .988 fielding percentage and a .289 batting average.