The perennial powerhouse that the Central softball team has been over the last several decades, coming up short in the postseason and having your season end without raising the big trophy means having not realized the big goal set at the beginning of the year by Coach George Wares and his players. Why shouldn’t it be? Making a long run in the playoffs is practically an expectation due to the amount of success the Dutch have had over the years. The year 2016 was a bit different for Central; they were coming off of a 2015 campaign that saw them graduate a large number of seniors so many underclassmen, several freshmen included, had to step up to the big-league speed in a hurry. Coach Wares says he would have liked to at least make it beyond the conference tournament so the young women on the team could gain some major experience. The Dutch were 23 – 15 in the 2016 season and only had to part with two seniors at graduation in the spring.