Coe softball coach Diane Meyer figures she watched about 134 high school games this past season in search of talented new players for the Kohawks.

She's delighted with the results.

Meyer brought in 11 freshmen and one junior college transfer for the 2016 campaign.

"I'm really excited about them," said Meyer, entering her second year as head coach. "They're all really good players. I'm just really anxious to see how we mesh together."

Eight of the freshmen are from Iowa. Meyer began watching many of them years ago and received commitments even before their senior campaigns began in high school.

Even with their commitments in the bank, Meyer kept returning to their games to keep tabs on their progress. Jake Koolbeck, one of her student assistant coaches, often went with her or attended games on his own.

"It was a lot of time, but there's nowhere I'd rather be than watching softball," said Meyer. "There's no pressure on me, just to go watch kids. It's a lot of fun. I get to know the kids, because I've seen them play most of the time."

Meyer made the most of her time by attending tournaments so she could watch several games in one day, including several at the same time on adjacent fields. She was particularly excited to watch five of her new players at the Iowa state tournament this year.

Meyer signed two of the top players from the Metro area this season with Jefferson pitcher Alyssa Olson and Linn-Mar outfielder/pitcher Maddy Ryan. Olson began taking pitching lessons at Coe when she was 7 or 8 years old when Meyer was one of the team's assistant coaches.

"I've known her for basically her whole softball career," said Meyer. "She's been a really wonderful pitcher for Jefferson for three years. I think she hasn't tapped her abilities quite yet."

Ryan was a star pitcher, center fielder and hitter at Linn-Mar. "I'm happy to have her," said Meyer.

Meyer raved about Haley Jones, a star shortstop from Waterloo West.

"I'm super-excited about Haley," she said. "I saw her run into more fences in foul territory than I've ever seen. She's really a tough competitor."

Meyer also signed Bella Berthel from Bellevue Marquette, Mariah Fritz from East Marshall, Ashley Heims from West Delaware, Madi Miller from Iowa City West and Allie O'Brien from Dallas Center-Grimes. Paige Wieland of Highland and Muscatine Community College also has joined the Kohawks.

O'Brien was an all-state shortstop at Dallas Center-Grimes and helped them win three state titles. "The sky's the limit for that kid, in my mind," said Meyer. "She's just so solid. I'm honored to have that kid. I can't wait."

The new out-of-state players are Sara Czachowski from Missouri, Morgan Hendricks from Wisconsin and Devin Lawson of Arizona.

Coe finished with a 24-16 record this season and returns a wealth of experience, but Meyer expects the new players to compete for playing time as freshmen.

"I told them at our meeting we had this week, I don't have any starters coming back. So everything is wide open," she said. "I'm really excited, because we've got options at practically every position.

"We start practice on Tuesday and I can hardly wait, just to get them all on the field and see how it goes."