This level of consistent excellence could almost be seen as a guarantee when you play for Bob Rivard at Hoosac Valley. However, he knows that nothing is ever given on a silver platter. It has to be earned, and his 2008 club is ready to work for its paycheck ... or in this case, its trophy.
While there's plenty of work to do during the regular season to get back to the tournament and have a lengthy run, the thoughts over in Cheshire always seem to revert back to the "second season."
"We won it two years ago and then we made it to the semis of the tournament last year," Rivard said. "So we've lost a talented core of players over the last two seasons. But I still have three or four guys left from when we won it, and they know what it takes."
In high school and college sports, there's always the inevitabilty of losing star players to graduation. It becomes even tougher when you lose star players at key positions.
At the top of Rivard's list of things to do is filling holes at the key positions left vacant by the class of '07. Adam Wright
Even though they hadn't been outside yet to really see what some of the new kids could do or how the returnees have improved in the offseason, Rivard had some ideas for filling in the gaps.
"Casey Koperniak's going to play catcher for us," he said. "And I'm hoping he can come in and be solid for us behind the plate. We only got a half a season out of him during his sophomore year because he hurt his hip, and then last year he couldn't play at all because he had shoulder surgery. But he's a senior, he's a captain and he knows what it takes.
"Danny Barrett practiced with us last year and saw limited action as my backup in the infield, but he might step in and be a good fit for us at shortstop. We have guys that can fill the spots, it's just some of them don't have the experience, so that always makes the decision a little harder."
Junior Dalton Larabee was the No. 2 pitcher last year but will likely assume Wright's role as the No. 1. Meanwhile, Steve Albareda will likely do the same thing as Lefebvre did for the 'Canes, splitting time between first and third.
After a solid 2007 campaign, senior captain Ryan Joppich will hold down the No. 2 spot in the rotation and anchor the outfield in center whenever he's not pitching. Fellow captain and classmate Andrew Rinaldi will be the second baseman and see some time on the mound as well. Josh Clairmont rounds out the senior captains and will start in the outfield.
Standing in Hoosac's way this season in its quest for another Western Mass. crown is likely one of the teams from Pittsfield. St. Joe's returns everyone from last season's club that finished as the state runners-up, while Taconic should also be a force after bumping down to Division 2 this year.
"If you look at our numbers of student enrollment," Rivard said. "We're very close to being in Division 3. But we're not, we're in Division 2, so we have to compete with the really big schools. Monument (Mountain) is huge, and I've always thought they should be in Division 1. And then you've got the Pittsfield schools that are big, too. But we hang tough with them every year and that's how we've built our program."
When asked about his expectations for the season, Joppich was just as candid as his coach.
"Western Mass.," he said. "Get back there. Get another jacket."
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