The 2016 softball season is just around the corner and head coach Bill Nye said he's feeling pretty good about the flock of Falcons gearing up to take the field.

The local ladies will begin the regular season on the road on March 1 with a 4 p.m. game against Saguaro High School. The first home game of the season will be two afternoons later when the Lady Falcons host Snowflake High School on March 3 for a 4 p.m. outing.

Looking back on 2015, Nye said he was a bit disappointed with how the season turned out because the team was just one win shy of entering the state tournament. The squad lost a handful of games by just a single run, any one of which would have given the team its first trip to the postseason in a number of years.

“It can be frustrating,” Nye said.

“But it's also a learning process. We've already talked about all of that this year. We've been working on hitting, we've got some new coaches helping out, we've all been more involved and the girls are staying active in practices.”

After only a week of those practices, Nye said that the extra help and clear focus from the local ladies is already paying off.

Still a pretty young team, the Falcons only have one senior, Alexandra Stevens, who has been with the program the full four years. Jada Herdt is back after a season away and the remaining upperclassmen are new to the game.

“Basically, we've got a core of girls who have played together for three years, because we've got a lot of juniors,” Nye said.

“That experience should start showing, and we've also got a great camaraderie thanks to all of those juniors and a couple of sophomores who have been playing together a while.”

Nye said that the Falcons are already hitting the ball better this season, something he attributes to the help of assistant coach Kevin Wise, who has made the team's performance at the plate a big focus.

“He worked in Chicago with a company called Swing Right, which trained college and club players in hitting,” Nye continued.

“He came on board and he's breaking it down for them. You can tell at practices that everything is coming together.”

Also helping wrangle all of those Falcons at practice are assistant coaches Randy Bragg and John Petkus, who he said have been a tremendous boost for the team.

“We're able to make practices more individualized,” Nye said.

“I've got the infield, Randy's got the outfield, Kevin has the pitchers and catchers and John has been doing lots of work with the new girls. Having that kind of support kind of relaxes me. I'm no longer doing everything and getting more time to focus a bit more on the game and strategize. Everyone gets to stay busy.”

Looking ahead, Nye said that the softball program is facing a same situation as its baseball counterpart in that they are in a section that boasts a lot of teams the Falcons are unfamiliar with.

“We really don't know anybody,” Nye said.

“From Casa Grande to a bunch of other teams down south, we'll have to wait and see what the competition looks like.”

Nye said that his goal for 2016 is just to see the Lady Falcons make their first trip to the state tournament in a number of years. He expects big things out of this year's squad but, with even more experience carrying over into next year and quite a few eighth grade players coming up, he wants the team to have a taste of that postseason right now.

“I want them to get to state just to get the experience,” he continued.

“There's nothing like it. It's fun and, once you get there, you want to go back. That's what I want for them.”