With the 2026 softball season underway, Millis High School is looking to improve on the positives taken from last season. 

After an up-and-down 2025, the Mohawks’ Head Coach Brett MacGowan is looking for more consistency in 2026. “We have eight starters returning,” MacGowan stated. “It is a huge advantage having a veteran team. They know the expectations, especially with some of them in their 5th or 6th year playing.” 

McGowan, who has coached the Mohawks for 12 years, has been a part of the Millis softball community since he started coaching the middle school team. 

Speaking of experience, MacGowan emphasized the impact in which their system runs has on the team’s success. “In Millis, the JV team consists of 7th and 8th graders,” MacGowan details. “My two captains [Mia Vasta and Zoe Sparks] are playing for me for their 6th straight year.” 

Since the players start their high school journey so young, MacGowan always ensures that the upperclassmen find a way to get involved. “We have a big sister/little sister program where we match up someone from the varsity team with someone on the junior varsity team,” McGowan stated. “They’ve already started by inviting the younger players to a preseason open gym where the older girls can talk to the younger girls and help create that team atmosphere.” 

In terms of what MacGowan is looking for on the field, mental strength is what he values most. “I always stress to [the players] that 90% of the game is mental,” he said. “This is a game about failure more than it is about success. I want them to get better every day.

This day-by-day mentality promotes MacGowan’s, as he puts it, “cerebral” coaching style. “I don’t scream. I’m not going to scream and yell at them if they make an error. Instead, I have more of the ‘next play, move on’ mentality.” 

With that said, MacGowan also expects his leaders to step in when needed. “I expect my veteran players, my juniors and my seniors, to help their teammates when they’re down and get them refocused and going back in the right direction,” he said. 

As the year progresses, the Mohawks will be working as a team to develop expectations for each player. Of course, there will be a goal for the team as a whole, but McGowan also likes to work with his players and create achievable goals that each player can set before the season. 

“I’ll have conversations with each player and set a goal for them, then readjust that goal when they achieve it,” he said. “I’ll tell them what my expectations are and, of course, let them have a say in what their individual - as well as the team’s - goals should be as well.” 

With that said, he ultimately knows it is up to his players to produce, which he has full confidence in. “A coach cannot win a game for you, but can certainly lose it. The girls will do the work, my job is to prepare them. 

MacGowan’s coaching philosophy seems to have the girls fully bought in and ready for what this season brings. “I will see them all the time in the [school] hallways, and they will already be telling me how many days there are until we start,” he said. 

Not only have the varsity players bought in, but the junior varsity newcomers have been ready to go since preseason. “We’ve seen our number of 7th graders surge this year,” the Head Coach stated. “They are so excited to play for the school.” 

In order to help prepare the young newcomers on the JV team, Coach MacGowan’s approach is very hands-on. “People always say, ‘bigger, stronger, faster,’ but I want them to be the smarter team,” he said. “So, I will give them questions all the time regarding situations and the rules of the game and explain the answers in order to help them better develop and understand the game.” 

The welcoming and supportive community Coach MacGowan has built accurately represents what the town of Millis is all about. “One thing I’ve learned is that Millis kids don’t give up and they’re resilient,” he said. “I admire that so much about them. Millis may be a small town, but, as they say, ‘Small town, big family’.” 

With the season commenced, MacGowan knows this team has what it takes to compete in one of the state’s tougher leagues. “We have a tremendous core of veteran players,” he said. “I have tremendous leaders too on the team that can take us far. We have a tremendous group of girls both on and off the field.”