Valley View is picked again to win another league title. A core of players return from the state AAA championship team last year. Confidence and coaching remain, replacing Gina Chieffallo and Anna McElroy priority #1.
"I don't know if you replace kids like that. I think you just have to deal with the kids that you have and we have quite a few kids back from the state championship team," said EJ Weston.
Right now coach EJ Weston is looking at four different pitchers to toe the rubber, and several different players to sit behind the plate. Senior Casey Pearce is excited about the upcoming season.
"Yes it's definitely exciting coming off of last year, but this year it's a new team. It's a new deal, but we all stick together. The seniors have been there so we know what it's like," said Casey Pearce.
You can see from here the Valley View softball field is wet and full of mud after Monday's snowstorm. It might be another week until the cougars can actually practice on this field so in the meantime head coach EJ Weston is taking them down to the Wyoming Valley sports dome for a few exhibition games and he's conducting practice inside the gym.
"Definitely good for the team as a whole and individually because you not only get to play a little bit you get more experience than other teams get during the winter, but you get to see live pitching and that's definitely a good thing," said Blayse Cholish.
"We're all a great team together. We all have our skills and different things. We put a lot of hard work into it and it really shows," said Gina Coccetti.
"They've been around forever Blayse and Casey are the nucleus of the team including Gina and we expect big things from them and we expect them to lead the younger kids and teach them the ropes," added EJ Weston.
Right now hitting is the strength for this team early this spring, if the pitching and catching come around late in the season this team could be dangerous down the stretch.