After stepping away from coaching, Steve Wood returns to the dugout this season for Lakeland High School.

Wood has returned to being the head coach for the Lady Cavs softball team after being out of coaching for the past six years, but he hasn’t had much time to wrap his head around it. He was hired a week before the season started, so it has been a whirlwind, but he has been enjoying the process of getting settled in.

“We are off and running,” he said. “Once we got everything going, it has been pretty good so far.”

A lot of the process right now has been Wood getting to know his team and them getting to know him. He takes pride in getting his team ready to compete, and he feels they have been receptive to that so far. Lakeland has had a rough schedule to start out, but they feel they have gotten better over the course of those first couple of games.

Wood wants to see his team improve as they go through a top heavy district as the smallest school. He wants the Lady Cavs to be successful this season while also encouraging his seniors to create memories that they will cherish for the rest of their lives.

“We want to go out there and play as hard as we can and earn people’s respect,” he said. “By the time the regionals roll around, if we are healthy, we hope to be competing at a high level.”

Lakeland will go on the road and face Oscar Smith High School at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.