The girls’s softball team will play its fifth game of the season at home against Nimitz on Feb. 15 at 7:00 p.m..

Last season, the Hawks had 25 wins and 10 losses overall. The team finished 10-3 in district games, which placed them first in the district.

“Preparation stays the same no matter how successful [last year’s] season was,” head coach Chelsea Herndon said. “We take every day one by one. We work on our pitching, hitting, pitch selection defense, communication, having aggressive bats and making the plays look easy. Whenever you can do that, you’ll be successful in the end.”

This season, the team played opponents from Frisco Wakeland, Frisco Memorial and most recently, Denton Guyer.

“[Our greatest strength is] our defense,” junior outfielder Alyssa Sneed. “Our defense is strong, and we have a strong lineup too. There’s definitely some weak spots in it, but it’s not very noticeable for some games.”

Coming from one of the team’s best seasons in Hebron softball history, this season has a lot to live up to. In the 2016-2017 school year, the team placed second in districts, finishing the season with nine wins and five losses.

“I want to go into the season more humble, knowing that we haven’t earned anything yet,” senior catcher Zoe Bowen. “[Last] year, I feel like we got big heads like, ‘oh we’re big and we’re bad,’ but I want to be different this year. [For] each team, even if we think they’re an easy team, we still need to go in with the mindset of we need to work hard to beat them, not we deserve it.”

Since the team is younger than past seasons, Herndon said she’s always looking for leadership among the team. She has found leadership through Bowen, senior Shorey Nguyen and junior Lucy Crowder.

“I really don’t want to change too much [this year],” Herndon said. “You hear the saying, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ I would just [want] a little more confidence whenever [players] get down, [and] working on them not getting too down and still building that confidence even when we’re not having the best game or best at bats.”

As this year is the last season the seniors will play, Bowen said she wants to leave the season as either offensive player of the year or catcher of the year. Last season, she received the title of district catcher of the year. 

“It’s really exciting because even though it’s my last year; I feel like I’ve built up to this moment, but I am kind of sad,” Bowen said. “Each thing is kind of like my last, like once district starts, it’s going to go by in a flash. I’m just trying to keep it really positive and have a good time, but it is kind of weird. It goes by so quick, but we’re going to be really good, so we’re going to play until the end.”