Coaching varsity softball will be something new for Ralph Aceto, though he’s plenty familiar with South Portland and Red Riots softball. A lifelong resident of the city, he’s worked with the Riots softball program as an offseason coach since his daughters, now in college, were players. Now he’s ready to take over the team fulltime.

Aceto, 52, replaced Jim Hartman as the South Portland High softball coach after Hartman stepped down over the winter after four seasons at the helm. Hartman also coaches football at Yarmouth High and cited the extreme hours of the double commitment as his reason for resigning.

Aceto was drawn into softball by his daughters. Amanda, now a senior in college, and Christina, a sophomore, were both standouts on the diamond during their days with the Riots. Amanda went on to play softball at Western New England College for two seasons before giving it up to concentrate on her education major. Christina now plays soccer at Bowdoin College. Another daughter, Jessica, did not play softball, but excelled as a basketball player at South Portland. She’s now a student at Northeastern University.

“It all starts in the backyard with a Wiffle ball and bat, then it becomes, ‘Dad, can you take me down to the playground and hit me grounders,'” Aceto said. “From there we went to Little League. I started coaching Little League when my daughters started playing. When my oldest got out of Little League, we started the first American Softball Association team in South Portland. That grew into a full-fledged ASA team.”

From there, softball became a year-round commitment, with travel to games and tournaments throughout New England. Aceto is familiar with the players he has, having coached many of them in the offseason.

“I’ve been around the program long enough so that most of the parents are familiar with me. Maybe that will cut me a little slack on that end,” Aceto joked after Monday’s practice in the high school gym, the first for the full squad. Pitchers and catchers reported last week.

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Last season, the Red Riots finished 14-4, bowing out in the semifinals of the Class A West tournament with a 1-0 loss to Scarborough. This season, the program is very young with only a handful of seniors and juniors among the 32 players out for the varsity and JV teams.

Aceto admitted it could be a rebuilding year, but said he thinks his team can contend.

“We still have a lot of talent in the program,” he said. “We’re young. We’ll probably start seven kids who are underclassmen. What I’m looking for this year is growth. If I see growth toward next year, I’ll be happy. Any type of playoff experience we gain will be good for us next year.”

The Riots were also young last season, but had some strong, experienced senior leaders, especially ace pitcher Julie DiMatteo and shortstop Kelsey Flaherty.

“Whenever you lose a Kelsey Flaherty and a Julie DiMatteo, you’re going to be having some holes to fill,” Aceto said. “We have two very capable pitchers in Lauren Tuttle and Alexis Bogdanovich. Shortstop is probably my biggest question mark. Losing Kelsey leaves a big divot in the middle of the infield. She played there for four years. It was a position you didn’t have to worry about for four years. We’re hoping to find a young kid to fill that void.”

Tuttle, a senior who also plays in the outfield, led the team through speed and conditioning exercises on Monday. She said her familiarity with Aceto – he’s coached her in the offseason since she was a freshman – has made the coaching change go smoothly.

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“It definitely makes it easier,” she said. “I know how he coaches. He’s out to win and he’s going to work us hard.”

With a talented but largely inexperienced sophomore class and a big crop of freshmen, Tuttle knows she and the other juniors and seniors will be looked to for leadership.

“We kind of have to take the lead and help them along,” she said. “We were young last year, too. I think we’re going to be good. I think we’ll have a good season.”

Rick Fournier and Mark Sandora return as varsity assistants. Michele Higgins, a former college softball player and varsity coach in Virginia, is the new JV coach.

Aceto expects the SMAA to be very competitive once again. Last year’s top three seeds – Scarborough, Biddeford and Gorham – all return talented players. Aceto also said Bonny Eagle can never be counted out, and he expects Cheverus to be very tough. He said the key to winning remains pretty simple. It will come down to being fundamentally sound and making plays in the field.

“Steal a run here, one mistake there, that’s where you get your wins,” he said. “It’s who makes the fewest mistakes and who capitalizes on the other team’s mistakes.”

The Riots kick off the regular season when they host Portland on April 25.

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