Fountain Hills High School assistant softball coach Bill Nye is aiming to make softball a year-round sport in the community rather than something “you pull out of the closet every February.”

Nye’s goal for the newly formed club team is to create a program that will keep the Lady Falcons warm during the off-season. This way, FHHS can skip over any growing pains the team might go through when the start of the season comes around.

“The key to this whole thing is knowing each other, having comradery, and knowing how we play,” Nye said. “This just helps us so much.”

Nye has been lobbying for a club softball team in town since he returned to Fountain Hills in 2010. Previously Nye was the FHHS softball head coach during the 2001-2002 season.

What made a club team possible this year was the number of players who turned out to play, as well as some communication between parents.

“I had a meeting about a month ago and the first time I had about three or four people come out,” Nye said. “I thought okay, I tried. But then a couple of parents got involved, started making some phone calls and stuff. The next practice we had 13 girls come out to play. With all that in mind it is worth the while.”

The girls who came out to play softball are just as excited as Nye is to be playing more.

“I think it is good practice and good bonding before the school season starts,” Kimberly Hoyt said. “It’ll help us build up as a team.”

Back in the 2001-02 season when Nye was head coach of the school program, Fountain Hills had a year-round club team whose effect on the school program was apparent.

“It is a good point to make because we went undefeated in the region that season,” Nye explained. “We had players of the year and we went to state both years. I had three kids get scholarships that year that went on to play at a higher level. We were very successful.”

The players who came out to play are mostly incoming freshman or sophomores, with one senior who is only 16.

The team will play at the 16U level, which Nye is expecting to be a challenge.

“What we are going to do is play in the 16 and under league,” Nye said. “Now most of these girls are just coming from eighth grade up to freshman level and we’re going to play with sixteen-year-olds. Now we might get our bell rung but, again, we are playing together. So as long as we are getting better with every game and every practice and we learn from each other, well, the sky is the limit.”

To Nye, having a young team is not a disadvantage, even in a league with older players, but rather something essential to the program.

“The biggest key is getting the [middle school] involved,” Nye said. “So these young ladies know that when they’re in the eighth grade they can go right into summer ball and then fall ball. That just kind of gives us a chance to see who is out there and what the competition is like. ”

The club team, appropriately dubbed the Falcons, will start to play in tournaments during July. Nye hopes to have the Lady Falcons ready for a tournament in Payson the week of July 9.