~ Tricia Slade Like previous years, Sydney Appleberry is involved with varsity high school softball this season at Richmond. Her role with the team, however, is different. Appleberry, a senior, is serving as Richmond’s equipment manager. She took on the role after recently suffering an ACL and meniscus tear while playing summer basketball that has her sidelined until next spring – and has her on crutches for a while. After the injury, she offered to serve as manager because “I still want to be part of the team,” she said Aug. 10 during a team practice at Southview Park. “I’ll be, like, still a team leader, considering I’m a senior,” Appleberry said. “And I’ll still help with … whatever needs to be helped with.” Assistant coach Tricia Slade also expects Appleberry to be an extra coach – or as Slade put it, her “assistant-assistant” – because of Appleberry’s softball acumen. “She knows the game,” Slade said. “She knows the game like … maybe only one or two others do here.” In…