Amidst all the excitement over the beginning of baseball season, Stamford High’s softball team has been hard at work to prepare for their own upcoming spring season. With all the snow gone and fairer weather ahead, the team has made the transition from indoor practices and is now taking the field.

Stamford High’s varsity softball team, coached by Tony “Espo” Esposito and assistant coach Shana Esposito, was not stopped from practicing over the winter by the frequently inclement weather. Typically, they had informal practices on Fridays at Turn of River Middle School and practice games on Sundays at an indoor field. This schedule continued all the way up to the beginning of tryouts, which started on March 24 and lasted for two days.

Approximately 40 girls tried out for the varsity and junior varsity teams, and about 13 made it onto each. There is no freshman team. The varsity team is captained by all three seniors: Shannon Stabile, Christina Joannou, and Colleen Adams, and by junior Nicole Pease. There are three freshmen on the varsity team this year, and four freshman “floaters”—athletes who are on the JV team but may be called to practice with varsity or participate in varsity games at certain times.

The girls practice for up to two and a half hours on nearly every day of the week that they don’t have games. The team has already started scrimmaging against other schools. The season kicks off with the first varsity game on Wednesday, April 9 at Fairfield Ludlowe High School. Monday, April 14 the team is scheduled to play their first home game against Warren Harding High School.

Last year, the varsity team competed at the state level but lost 3-2 to the number one seeded team in the semi-finals. Despite graduating five seniors last year, the team hopes to top their previous season’s success. Stabile said, “This season we are looking to working hard in practice and getting better every day. We have a young team with a lot of talent and if we work together we will have a great season.”