Spotted in the Mack Olson Gym, the Geneva High School Softball team is going through hitting drills to prepare for their upcoming season last Tuesday afternoon. Coach Plackett and Coach Judson are leading the program towards a common goal, while preparing their teams mental and physical game. All this preparation before the first tryout on March 1^st.

The Geneva High School Softball team started open gym last Tuesday to prepare players for the closely approaching season. The players are going through hitting drills, and being shown the throwing progressions that start off a practice. The progressions being led by Assistant Varsity Coach Jim Judson.

“I am very excited for the upcoming season,” Judson said. “I believe we’re going to start off strong and just have a great season off the bat.”

Varsity Head Coach Annie Plackett prepares as the upcoming season occurs. With tryouts coming up, she is excited to start up the season again after the long break.

“I am very excited for the upcoming season,” Plackett said. “I’m excited to see the girls again, and I’m excited to work with them. Overall, just having a good season, and having fun.”

With all the players and coaches being excited about the season starting up again, many team and individual goals were created as well. The Geneva High School softball program came off a difficult season struggling with the team’s offense and errors in their defense.

“I think last season was not our best season due to us having a relatively young team, but I think we’ve grown a lot since then,” she said. “I think this season’s supposed to be much better and we learned from our mistakes. We’re only just going to get better, so I’m excited for this season but we wouldn’t know any of the mistakes if it wasn’t for last season.”

Learning from mistakes in the previous season, the team and coaches work together towards a common goal for the program.

“I think a common goal is just to increase our fielding average and our batting averages because we need to get the bats going,” he said.  “I believe that was a big issue from last year.”

Geneva Softball Senior Rachel Carlson has been with the team for three seasons and has positive expectations towards the upcoming season. She is excited to play with her teammates again, but with the season approaching Carlson sets individual goals for herself as well.

“Some goals for myself this season are having a higher batting average obviously and have a higher fielding average,” Carlson said. “I just want to overall approve from the beginning of the season.”

With the team goal set, and the new season approaching comes change from the coaches helping their players best achieve their goals.

“Yeah, me and Plackett have some new ideas for drills we’re going to be doing and being a little bit stricter on the program rules,” he said. “We are going to promote more team bonding and working together to become a better team.”

As tryouts slowly creep in, players and coaches are staying active and determined on achieving goals set for the team and for themselves. The coaches still have high expectations for a fun and hardworking season in the end.