After a second straight state championship, a 47-18 record and nine seniors gone from last year’s team, the Powell Pioneers are looking to reload in the 2025 season. They’re hoping to continue the recent winning formula for the program featuring a mostly new group along with some familiar faces.

“It’s a whole new program. I’m not going to say we’re rebuilding because the ‘B’ team played in the state title game last year,” manager Jason Borders said. “I mean we’re not expecting to be that team that we’ve had for the last three or four years … I told them they’re going to have a bullseye on their back all year just because of that team before them, but I feel like they’ve also been very successful in the last year or so, and they just need to bring that same thing with them.”

Heading into this season the Pioneers do bring some experience back from that state championship team a year ago, featuring players who have had playing time at the ‘A’ level over the past several years.

One of those returning players is a second team All-Conference selection in Jordan Loera, who Borders expects to be one of the leaders on the mound for the Pioneers.

“I expect Jordan to be our dog on the mound,” Borders said.

Additional players who have had experience for the Pioneers over the past seasons include Cole Fauskee who was behind the plate a year ago, Trevion Solberg who got significant outfield experience, Caden Diaz who Borders expects to be one of their top arms this year along with Talon Nuss, Brenton Henke and Ben Ostermiller who each received playing time a year ago.

In addition to those returners, the Pioneers added a new player to the rotation in Abel Teten, who moved to Powell from Buffalo this school year and was a second team All-Conference selection in the ‘A’ East a year ago.

“I think he’s going to help us. Unexpectedly we got a kid, that doesn’t usually happen in Powell. We never have those guys that just wander in and help out,” Borders said. “But I think he’ll be quality for us.”

Despite a mostly new lineup, Borders is not taking it easy on the Pioneers once again this year. He is preparing a tough schedule to test the team and prepare them for the state tournament that returns to Sheridan for the second time in three years on July 24-28.

“I look at it and I could have backed off, I could have played Sheridan’s ‘A’ team instead of their ‘AA’ right away. But I looked at it like when Brock [Johnson], Cade [Queen] and those guys were sophomores I did not schedule tough and when we got to state we weren’t prepared for those kinds of games,” Borders said. “I want to get these guys started. I want them to see the speed of the game and where we need to get to. Yeah we won’t be there probably at the beginning, the first month.”

Despite the difficult schedule once again facing the Pioneers, Borders is hopeful that even if they take losses early in the year, that the team understands the bigger picture to prepare them for the final stretch of the year.

“We’ve just got to make them understand that this is a learning process, and we’ve just got to learn to work through it. I mean nobody expects us to go down there and win the Gillette tournament (in May) right? Probably nobody expects us to go beat Sheridan ‘AA’ the first weekend,” Borders said. “I just want them to see it, because it’s different … Kids hit the ball harder, the pitching is better. Once you see that, then I’m hoping when we go play the teams in our conference and the other teams in the state, then we have ourselves at a higher level, or we understand how to play at a higher level … Just go play, go learn where we are.”

Heading into this season Borders maintains the same philosophy that has helped the Pioneers find their success in the past several years, and that’s that pitching helps win championships.

“We’re just going to just try to pitch everybody, get guys innings. We learned that having eight to nine arms the last couple years has been beneficial to us,” Borders said. “So I expect these guys to step up and do the same thing.”

New to the ‘A’ West this season will be a different conference and postseason qualification format, with the conference dissolving northwest and southwest quadrants and moving to a singular conference.

The top two teams in the regular season will automatically qualify for state, while the No. 3 seed will play No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed will play the No. 5 seed in a three game series with winners heading to state, mirroring the playoff format from the ‘A’ East last season.

Borders expects the ‘A’ West to have the top contenders once again alongside the Pioneers, including Lovell, Evanston and Cody.

“I’m gonna put the target on Munch (Lovell manager Michael Jameson) and the Mustangs,” Borders joked.

In order to contend for that state title again Borders said the Pioneers will need to play a different brand of baseball this year.

“We’re gonna have to play totally different baseball than what people are used to seeing around here,” Borders said. “So let’s see how it goes. We’re gonna have to bunt and run, put pressure on people, hit and run more.”

Starting out the year the Pioneers will head over the hill to where they hope to end the year in July, taking on the Sheridan ‘AA’ Troopers in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

“They’re returning a bunch of good kids. I’m sure it’ll be rough, but we’ll get through it,” Borders said. “I look forward to playing Sheridan every year. Let’s just find out who we are; like we told them, until somebody steps up and takes a position they’re all going to get some playing time and see what it’s about. It’ll just be nice to get out and play somebody else.”