The Columbia Falls girls softball team has a new face at head coach this year, as longtime assistant Rick Lawrence takes the reins.

Lawrence has been an assistant under longtime coach Dave Kehr for the past eight seasons and founded the C-Town Rebel travel team about 12 years ago. He’s been coaching softball for the past 16 years, since his children were young.

Lawrence said this year’s team is probably the fastest he’s ever coached, so while they don’t have the power hitters like Hayden Peters and Maddy Moultray like they had last season, they’ll look to score the old-fashioned way – hitting and running.

Moultray and Peters graduated after helping lead the team to its second consecutive state A title in 2024.

Lawrence said he has four pitchers vying for a top spot on the mound, Katie Bulawsky, Hailey Greene, Ella Branstetter and Kate Luwellen.

They still have plenty of talent from last year’s state championship squad coming back, including Bella Mann, Taylor Lingle, Addy Bowler, Annika Reid and Onnikka Lawrence to name a few.

Reid, a senior, will play college ball at St. Catherine University in Minnesota.

While the team has five seniors, overall they’re pretty young, Lawrence said.

The teams to beat? In conference Polson and Ronan will be tough and Libby is always competitive. Frenchtown is the team to beat from the south. 

But Lawrence likes this squad.

“I think we’ll get better every game,” he said.

The Kats were supposed to open the season at home against Libby Friday, but that’s been postponed until April 3. The Kats will travel to Polson Saturday, where they hope to play Hamilton and Belgrade if the weather holds. There’s snow in the morning forecast.

Lawrence is assisted by Michelle Woodard, Jesse Mann, Josh Branstetter and Melissa Davis.