In one of the first practices of this spring, head coach Zachary Medlock stood before the John Stark softball team and posed a simple question: “What position do you play?”

For a group full of Amateur Softball Association-seasoned players, the query may have had an easy answer. But not on this year’s Stark team.

“People went around and were like, ‘What do we say?’” said senior captain Heather Carr.

“I’m standing behind them, like, ‘Everything – you play everything.’

One thing Medlock has been preaching this year is, ‘You don’t know where you’re playing.

Just because you played a position last year doesn’t mean you’re playing it this year. You play everywhere.’”

It’s that versatility, combined with added depth and confidence, that has the Generals shooting high this season.

With all but two starters and his top four pitchers returning, Medlock said the immediate goal is a Class I state tournament berth, something which eluded a 6-12 Stark team last spring. But as the program has continued to grow under the sixth-year coach, it’s the team’s pursuit of respect and, as Medlock put it, the steps needed to “build a tradition of excellence,” that may ultimately drive this team.

“There are a lot of things we’re trying to do as a program to become a more balanced team from year to year and be able to have players to want to come out and play, play during the summer, get better and then bring those skills back to John Stark,” Medlock said. “We want to become a more consistent program and not have off years.”

This season, Stark hopes, shouldn’t be one. Along with the new focus on position flexibility, Medlock has also emphasized versatility at the plate, buoying many of his players to practice batting from both sides of the dish. The hope is to keep opposing pitchers uncomfortable, put runners on and bring them home with an experienced lineup.

Besides Carr, Stark returns senior leadoff hitter and captain Sarah Lloyd, who stole 26 bases two seasons ago, and the team’s third captain, Katie Begin, who batted near .400 last season.

Begin, however, may miss a substantial part of the season with a fractured left foot she suffered before the year started. But even if she isn’t ready to go, Stark still boasts promising underclassmen in sophomore Becca Morin, freshman Kelsey Francher, sophomore Olivia Cray, sophomore Abby Sullivan and freshman Molly Dussault.

Together, they’ll hope to give enough run support to the team’s four returning pitchers, juniors Monique Giroux and Madison Belanger and sophomores Alexe Proctor and Emily Sweeney. Each has won varsity games in the past, and together, make up perhaps the team’s greatest strength.

They’ll have a rising star to throw to in sophomore Taylor Buxton, who batted .300 last year and proved very difficult to run on toward the end of the last year, Medlock said.

“Four incredible, incredible pitchers,” was Begin’s description.

“I think it will be tough to figure out how to rotate them because they’re all so good. Each one has their own different style, and we do have a lot of subs so if one gets tired or hurt, we can substitute another one in and change it up for the batter.”

Stark opens its season on Wednesday, April 11, vs. Pelham.