Having lost the seven players that took the team to the state tournament in each of the past three years, it might be easy to assume that the Falcon fastpitch team is prepared to have a down year.

That would be a mistake.

With a 38-0 record against North Cascades Conference competition during the past two years and coming off a 26-1 season in 2003, the Falcon girls are still the 500-pound gorilla in almost any fastpitch game in the state. State 2A runner-ups in 2002 and a third-place finisher in 2003, this is a team that has been working toward a state championship for more than four years.

The 2004 season is a clean state. This week, the team started preseason workouts and tryouts. Some new players are on the team, looking to fill holes left by last year’s graduates; at the same time, there are a number of veterans who are used to success. Whether or not that success comes will have a good deal with how the new and the experienced mesh on the practice and game field.

“We have a lot of improving to do,” said third-year Falcon coach Todd Lubach this week.

His prediction for the season is Sphinx-like, hinting at his team’s desire for another shot at the team title, while keeping the Falcon’s heavily revised roster in mind.

“I don’t expect anything. I hope for everything,” he said.

Of primary importance will be rebuilding the team’s pitching staff. Anchored around junior ace Christie Robinson, who is 40-3 over the past two seasons, the team’s corps of hurlers was decimated with the loss of graduates Ashley Lopez and Lucy Daumen. Moving into those slots will be Robinson’s catcher, junior Carolann Lubach, and Jenna Dunsmore and Alea Robertson.

Leading the team this season will be senior second baseman Bronwyn Russell, who has played on the varsity squad for four years. Playing around her will be a smattering of other players with varsity experience and a good number of girls new to the team. Lubach said he is still deciding who will play on the varsity team. He noted that there are several young prospects, as eight freshmen join the 22-member team. But at this point, he is not saying who will be on the Falcons’ top team.

Whoever they are, they come onto a team that was nearly errorless throughout the 2003 regular season and that posted a .329 batting average.

Though expecting stiffer resistance from the NCC teams the Falcons have beaten by as much as 20 runs on some occasions during the past two seasons, Lubach has also scheduled a number of games with 3A Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, Burlington and Lynnwood to keep his team sharp.

If the Falcons minimize injuries through this schedule, play solid defense and have high production, Lubach said, they stand a good chance of getting another shot at a state placing.