After a long career coaching the Lady Golden Bears softball team, Lilore decided to retire after the 2007 season.

In Turowski, she is no stranger to the Lyndhurst program since she played for Lyndhurst from 1993 to 1997 as an outfielder and then went on to play for Felician College.

After being the head coach at Morris Plains from 2003-06, she came back to Lyndhurst and was an assistant basketball coach last season.

"I thought this was a great opportunity," said Turowski. "I’m looking to bring back the program to like it was in the old days."

For the last couple of years, the Lady Golden Bears softball program has struggled. Before that Lyndhurst would be just behind St. Mary’s at the top of the BCSL National when Turowski was there and a few years after that.

For this season Turowski did not get the benefit of an off season after being named the new varsity coach around Thanksgiving of 2007.

Lyndhurst struggled last season to a 5-22 mark and are off to a slow start at 2-7 this season. The slow start is due to a new coach, but Turowski said that the new hitting skills put into place are starting to pay off.

This year the goal is to get everybody under one theme. "We have two huge goals," said Turowski. "The first is for them to believe in me and what I am teaching and the second is for them to believe in themselves…This year I want them to learn the fundamentals of the game and next year we‘ll take it to another level."

The next couple of years the goal will be to make the state and county tournaments.

One of the first things for the off season will be to have a summer program. "Today you can not just pick up a bat in March," said Turowski. "That is what is happening today. We have girls that only play for a few months against teams that play all year round."

To illustrate that Lyndhurst’s best offensive player is junior catcher Justine Sebastiano who is hitting over .350 for the season. "She’s a complete player offensively and defensively," said Turowski. "We put her as the number one hitter (leadoff spot) and then move her over. She’s able to get the runner at second base."

Turowski added that Sebastiano has gunned down five runners at second base so far this season.

Catching Sebastiano this season is junior pitcher Melinda Marin. "She’s more of a control pitcher," said Turowski. "She’s not overpowering but has eight pitches," said Turowski. "She likes mixing up her pitches and keep the batters guessing."

The strength of the team is the infield with the return this season of senior Nicole Hernandez, junior Francesca Gaccione and sophomore Nicole Meyers to third base, shortstop and second base. The other member of the infield is junior Nicole Johnsen at first base.

The outfield is expected to improve as the season goes along as both sophomore Brianna Manente and junior Cassie Indri moved from the infield to the outfield. The other outfielders for the 2008 season are sophomore Monica Cantisanti along with juniors Linda Peeters and Jenelle Temes.