Outside temperatures are rising, and spring sports are starting back up. Fountain Hills High School will sponsor track and field, baseball, softball, golf and beach volleyball this spring, and boys volleyball looks like it may have a full roster this season, too.

Where to begin with all the new sports? How about with family and the familiar? The Falcons varsity softball team may have a new head coach this season in Lawrence Hughes, but he’s been around the team and community for some time. He is the Fountain Hills Little League’s vice president of softball and his daughter, Samantha, is also on the high school team.

The Hugheses aren’t the only father-daughter pairing on the team. Senior Michaela Quintana has always been motivated by her family, and her father will be assisting the Falcons in her last season.

“Oh, it’s going to be sad, but I’m really excited,” Quintana said. “My dad always coached while I played, and as I got into high school, he had to stop coaching. I convinced him to come and coach this year, so it's kind of our last season together because I’m not going on to play college ball. There’s a lot of emotion that’s riding on this season so I’m gearing up and getting ready.”

Quintana was third for the Falcons last year in runs with 20, second in hits with 26, and tied for first with 20 RBI. She is the leading returner in all these categories this season, and Quintana leads all returners with a .464 batting average from last season.

“She’ll be huge again,” Hughes said about Quintana. “We got Hailey Chandler, too. She’s a slapper, so it’ll be good to get a different view for us. She’ll be good, so we have some power coming through. We have a freshman coming up, Jordan, and she’ll be a pretty good asset, too. She’ll probably be our leader in on-base percentage this year.”

The Falcons finished last season 4-13 (1-9), but they ended on a positive note with three straight wins. Hughes said the team had some communication issues last year, but this year should be a lot different.

“Just a lack of communication throughout, it was a big thing,” Hughes said. “But now everyone is on board, and there’s more commitment with everything which is good. I really don’t anticipate any problems with that. I’m not going to let it fly, there’s the bench. We have options this year, there are going to be freshmen who are hungry. Last year, we didn’t have that.”

There were only two freshmen last year, Chandler and Stella Grieco, who return as sophomores after fielding for varsity all last year.

Quintana will be joined by four other seniors, three of whom have been on the team for years. There is Kalista Johnson, Gianna Barker, Nicolette Barker and new transfer Liv Guttschow. These five will hope to anchor the Falcons throughout the season.

“We have new coaching this year, and he’s already got our fields being worked on, starting tournaments, getting scrimmages set up,” Quintana said. “It was the structure we were missing last year that we’re going to have this year, so I can’t wait. I’ve never been so excited for a season.”

While most of the softball team started practicing on Monday, Feb. 7, Quintana was busy with the final week of the basketball season. Quintana returned to the softball diamond this week, and she recruited two basketball freshmen, CC Smith and Kaylee Lewis, to go with her.

The Falcons have been preparing their skills for the season, but Hughes also wants to sprinkle in some life lessons during his practices. Hughes recently finished a Super Bowl fundraiser for the middle school team, and he had the high-schoolers serve dinner at The Club last Friday, Feb. 11.

“I try to get all these girls involved in some kind of a fundraiser each year,” Hughes said. “Each group, even middle school, so they understand what money goes back into.”

The Falcons have a scrimmage today, Wednesday, Feb. 16, at the middle school. They will play their first two games of the season at the middle school next week. On Wednesday, Feb. 23, the Falcons host Eastmark at 3:45 p.m., and on Friday, Feb. 25, the Falcons will host Globe at 3:45 p.m.