Jason Borders won’t deny it. The Powell Pioneers’ 2015 season was a disappointment.

For a manager and team used to perennial success, the 16-29 season that ended without a state-tournament appearance can’t honestly be described otherwise.

“Powell’s a baseball town, and we’re too good to be in the position we’re in right now,” Borders said.

The good news for the Pioneers and their fans is the position they’re in right now isn’t predictive of the position they’ll be in this time next year.

But in order to rebound next summer, work will have to be done this fall and winter.

Borders said a plan — and a few key personnel pieces — are in place to keep the Pioneers active during the long offseason.

A fall baseball league, a new pitching coach along with his winter training program, as well as a large contingent of returning young players all figure to help the Pioneers take a step forward in 2016.

The opportunity to improve will be there, and Borders said the players have to want to take advantage of it.

“It’s all between the ears,” Borders said. “It’s so mental with what they do with themselves over the winter, how bad they want to work.”

The offseason work will begin in mid-August, when a contingent of four or five Pioneers will play on a traveling fall baseball team in Cody.

The team gives ballplayers a chance to work on their game outside of Wyoming’s truncated summer, and takes them to tournaments in cities such as Billings, Rapid City, South Dakota, and Denver.

It would mark the first time any of Borders’ Pioneers have played fall ball, and the longtime manager was excited about the new avenue to further develop Powell’s returning players.

The Pioneers will stay in town, however, for training during the winter.

“Hopefully we get a lot of work done in the offseason,” Borders said. “Get them taught. Get them back to basics. We’ll have them in the cage in February. We’ll get them in there and start all over again.”

Only three players — Cory Heny, Bryce Wright, Matt Brown — are officially done due to age.

Powell will return the majority of a roster that was dominated by younger players, many of whom got their first taste of everyday play at the American Legion level.

“Those young kids played a lot of baseball,” Borders said. “They had more at-bats than a lot of my 18-year-olds did last year.”

A large crop of 18-year-olds will lead the Pioneers in 2016, but Borders said there is still plenty of untapped potential in his senior players.

“We have six 18-year-olds (returning), but really we have Carson (Asher), Teagan (Cordes) and Ezra (Andreasen) who have played in the program the whole time.”

The other three — Blaze Flores, Kaden Moore, Trey Ouellette — played off and on, and in the case of Ouellette, hadn’t play baseball since he was a 12-year-old in Little League.

Underclassmen like Tyler Feller and Xavier Wantulok also played expanded roles in 2015.

The lack of experience hurt the Pioneers in the short term, but the crash course in Legion ball could lead to rapid player development and more success down the road.

“It helped us a ton,” Borders said of giving inexperienced players more playing time.

Aiding in the offseason program will be pitching coach Pat Day, who just completed his first season with the team, and produced instant results.

“Our pitchers threw better this year,” Borders said. “It seemed to me like our arms were stronger, their pitches were better.

“And I think it will get better next year.”

Day will continue to work with pitchers during more aggressive — and hopefully well-attended — pitching workouts.

“I think this year, we’re going to have a lot more guys throwing all winter,” Borders said.

Borders is optimistic the new winter program will have Powell’s arms season-ready by opening day next year.

“I’m going to keep on them to come throw and work all winter, because that’s the only way we’re going to get better,” he said. “Coach Day is going to do whatever he can to help get those pitchers ready.”

Aside from bullpen and batting cage sessions, Powell’s coaches will also use the offseason to educate the relatively youthful and inexperienced roster, which just hasn’t played enough to grasp many of baseball’s intricacies.

“We’ll try to talk to them about the game more, so when we do get on the field, we’re prepared,” Borders said.

Powell’s offseason involves a lot of moving pieces, but if they come together they can prove that 2015 was just a bump in the Pioneers’ road, rather than a complete U-turn.