Mia Duda is the only student at Fountain Hills High School in the last two years who verbally committed to playing college athletics prior to her senior season in that sport starting. Duda announced her decision to play softball for Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Calif., last October, and the high school season begins next Monday, Feb. 27.

Duda has to make it through her last season as a Falcon before she can play for the Rustlers. She’ll look to lead the team in batting average and big hits again. She had the most hits with 43, including four home runs, and her average was 0.581 last season.

“Just make sure she stays healthy honestly,” head coach Lawrence Hughes said. “Staying healthy and making sure she still keeps her GPA…It’s always good to see them future their career. Their education first of all, and then obviously a bonus to go play something they love to do.”

Duda was an all-region first team selection last year and is one of four returning players. She’s also the only senior at the moment. There are nine positions, and the Falcons only have nine players, but they are still trying to recruit ahead of the season opener.

The Falcons lost four seniors to graduation, including a twin sister pitcher and catcher combo. Returning sophomore Shania Rivera will step into Nicolette Barker’s shoes to pitch, and fellow sophomore Sammantha Hughes has high goals for herself filling in for Gianna Barker at catcher.

“This is going to be huge, but my personal goal is to get player of the region for catching, not short [stop],” Sammantha said. “Shania’s our only pitcher as of right now. Jaden’s doing it for practice and because she wants to pitch. It’s going to be mainly Shania until Jaden [Dunkeson] gets used to it.”

Sammantha set a high bar for herself by making the all-region second team as a freshman. She was second behind Duda in batting average, 0.465, and second in on base percentage, 0.512. She also said she plays catcher on her club team.

Rivera pitched a few innings last year, but Nicolette earned all-region second team honors and pitched a vast majority of innings for the Falcons. Dunkeson is one of two incoming freshmen, and she’s had extra time to practice pitching in the batting cages.

The Falcons had their first full practice this past Monday. The field’s first base area flooded after the storm on Tuesday, Feb. 14, and Hughes had to relevel it before they could practice. They’ve also had a handful of optional batting cage practices while winter sports came to an end.

“It’s been basically starting all over again,” Lawrence said. “I haven’t had a full practice yet because winter sports just ended on the girls side. It’s just going to be interesting. I think it’ll be a fun year, different moral so I think it’ll be fun.”

Junior Hailey Chandler returns and is speedy quick and a slapper hitter. Chandler led the region in stolen bases, and she was 13th in the conference with 24 steals. She was also third on the team in batting average, 0.458, and second in total hits with 38.

The Falcons will have more new players than returning players, which means things will likely change as players find the position they feel best in. There is optimism in the air, because the Falcons had a slow start last year but still made the play-in tournament with a 9-16 record.

The Falcons didn’t make it out of the first round, but the four returning players know what to expect the next time they make the post season.

“It was pretty exciting. It wasn’t our best game, but we definitely had a lot of fun,” Sammantha said. “They were huge. Everyone was at least taller than Hailey and huge. They were massive. It wasn’t like the teams that we were playing, it was like two levels up from what were normally used to playing.”

The Falcons have a long season ahead of them. They will travel to Globe next Monday, Feb. 27, and will start their season at 3:30 p.m. Then, they have back-to-back home games next Wednesday, March 1, against Valley Christian at 4 p.m. and Thursday, March 2, against Payson at 3:45 p.m.