Another highly-anticipated season of Highland Huskies softball is about to commence. Highland extended their streak of winning seasons to nearly 20 years by going 19-9 last summer, taking second place in the North division of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference and having only the eventual state champions from Sigourney end their playoff run.

A number of senior stars will need to be replaced, including starting pitcher Grace Prybil and all-state graduates Sarah Burton and Payton Brun. However, one of Highland’s veteran stars is back in infielder Lilly Barre.

The senior had a .402 batting average and scored 44 runs in 2023, but she was arguably just as good last summer, scoring another 32 runs and hitting .366 with eight doubles, three triples and two home runs.

Two freshmen emerged for the Huskies as rookies and are back to do more damage. Maiya Singbeil batted .371 and had 16 runs batted in as an eighth-grader, while Kamryn Fink is coming off a .333 average, a homer, 16 RBI and 18 steals. The pair also combined to score 45 runs.

Junior Adisyn Prottsman will step into the role of number-one pitcher for Highland after compiling a 2.25 earned-run average and 43 strikeouts in just over 37 innings of work last season.

Huskies head coach Carrie Wieland tells KCII Sports that all the pieces are still in place for her team to again be a conference and postseason contender, and now they have figure out how those pieces fit together.

“We have a job to do,” Wieland says. “We were so close last year, but we have a lot of new kids this year, and I think that the drive will be there to even be better and keep going and keep being successful. Everybody’s going to have a new role, and we’re all just kind of starting over, so it’ll be kind of fun.”

The new softball season begins for Highland on Monday night when they travel to face WACO. You can hear the Huskies taking on the Warriors in the KCII Area Game of the Week starting with pregame at 6:30 streaming on KCIIradio.com and the KCII3 app.