Just two months after coming in fourth in the 2025 Class 2 Fall Softball Championships in Meador Park in Springfield, the Montgomery County Wildcats were rewarded for their success.

The team received a banner that is hung on the walls of Ballew & Snell Court. The softball Wildcats joined the 2005 football team, the 1991 volleyball team, the 2019 baseball team and four boys basketball teams in a group of MCHS teams that placed in state competition.

This fall, the Wildcats hope to get another banner on the gym wall as they return eight players from the 2025 team that won a school-record 28 games, captured its first Eastern Missouri Conference championship and celebrated its first district title since 2018.

MCHS begins its quest for another top-four state finish on Aug. 29, when it plays in its Fall Classic at Kiwanis Fields. A year ago, the Wildcats began their season with a championship at the MCHS Fall Classic en route to their historic season.

MCHS participated in the Final Four for the first time. Even though the Wildcats were upset they lost to Mid-Buchanan in the third-place game, they were still happy to leave Springfield with their first state trophy in program history.

“It’s still on my mind,” said Audra Heimer, who returns for her 12th season as MCHS coach. “It’s a monumental thing that happened. Obviously, we want to get back there, get back there. I obviously want to get back there, too. But it’s one game at a time.”

Seniors Reese Hill, Sam Turner and Jillian Weekley, juniors Kenley Wessel and Sullie Falloon and sophomores Trinity Brown, Addison Cannon and Abigail Knoepflein return from last year’s squad. There are also one junior, six sophomores and eight freshmen who will be fighting for varsity spots on the squad.

“We’re going to have a few bumps along the way, trying to figure out where everyone fits best in the lineup and on the field,” Heimer said. “We have so many girls who can play different positions. Obviously, the end goal is to go back to state, but it’s going to take a little bit for us to get there just kind of get everybody comfortable with each other and get in our groove.”

Hill is back on the team this fall after enjoying an outstanding junior season that included her third all-state award. She was solid at the plate and in the circle as she batted a team-best .519 with five home runs and 21 RBIs and won 23 games and finished with 241 strikeouts.

Despite missing the last 13 games due to an injury, Weekley turned in a strong 2025 season that included a .418 batting average and a second-team all-EMO honor. Turner hit .378 with a team-high 46 RBIs to receive a first-team all-EMO infielder award last fall.

“They made a huge impact in our program the last three years,” Heimer said. “Reese is a three-time all-stater in pitching and she can play anywhere on the field. You can beat having a six foot first baseman like Sam. Jillian is so versatile. She can catch, she can play short and she can kind of play where we need her to.”

Heimer said she will be looking for Wessel and Falloon to play key roles again for the Wildcats this fall.

“They can play infield and they’ve been practicing in the outfield,” she said. “They kind of want to just play wherever it’s best for the team.”

The Wildcats begin their EMO season on Sept. 4 with a road game against Silex. Last year, MCHS shared the league title with North Callaway and Elsberry with a 9-1 record.

The Wildcats will be playing at the Monroe City and the South Callaway tournaments again this year. Last year, they won the Monroe City championship with a 3-0 record.

Also, MCHS will return to the Take the Lake Tournament, which will be played at Ballparks National in the Lake of the Ozarks area on Sept. 11-12. The team finished 3-1 at last year’s event.

“It’s a fun tournament,” Heimer said. “The girls get to play different competition. They get to hang out, they get to spend the night. They get to hang out all together for the weekend for two days. It’s fun to go play on turf. The complex is really nice. They get to hang out with each other outside of softball and we get to go play four games against competition that we don’t see all of the time.”