One of the benefits to having a senior-heavy team is the experience those players brings can help lead to championships.

That is exactly what happened for the Battlefield field hockey team during the 2009 season when the Bobcats captured their program's first Cedar Run District title.

However, there's one catch to that metric: when the seniors graduate, their spots need to be filled the next year.

Such is the position head coach Amanda Brever found herself in at the start of the 2010 campaign. A first-year varsity coach who's spent the last two seasons working with the junior varsity squad, Brever said she entered this year knowing that the Bobcats lost about two-thirds of their team to graduation last year.

Yet the current squad is loaded with upper-class talent as it features seven seniors and 13 juniors. That means the team may just need to adjust to some of its starters being used to the limelight as key players instead of coming in off the bench.

In the early going, Battlefield figured out the kinks it needs to work on to have another shot at the district crown with two tough out-of-district losses to North Stafford and Forest Park. Given that the Cedar Run District only has three field hockey teams (Battlefield, Stonewall Jackson and Osbourn), any team theoretically has a chance at claiming the mantle. Brever said she's counting on some of her veterans to guide the team back to where they want to be during the year.

Junior defender Laura Szczyrba is the team's "stronghold" in the backfield, according to Brever. The coach commended her stick work in particular, saying it gives her hopes that the defense will have what it takes to be competitive.

"I feel confident and she's a good leader back there," said Brever

Rebecca Wescott is anchoring the team in goal, having trained at a facility this year in Virginia Beach that focuses on girls showing strong potential. She earned second-team all-area honors as a junior in 2009.

"Rebecca is very much a lead-by-example person," explained Brever. "She's constantly committed."

Brever mentioned the senior Wescott approaches plays with "the same serious attitude" irrelevant of the scenario setting it up. She's the type of player, according to the coach, that shows up first to practice and games and works out on the sidelines while teammates drill on the field.

"She's constantly focusing on 'What do I need to do to improve,'" said Brever.

The coach mentioned senior Liz Holguin as another player always focused on improving, even now in her fourth year playing for Battlefield. By promoting that sort of work ethic, Brever said new players entering the program can figure out the type of expectations the players and coaches set and want.

"(We) expect them to come every single practice with (that) desire," said Brever. After all, the team would "certainly" like to bring home some more hardware at the end of the season, she noted.

"I think it is very realistic for us to look at a post-season" berth, she said, adding that if other teams look at Battlefield as a team of relative inexperience, "that's to our benefit."

So far, talks after games have centered on field positioning with particular focus on angling and anticipation, according to Brever. That's a positive for the team, considering that they're working on strategy rather than fundamentals. What Brever is eager for her players to achieve is a collective sense of self-confidence, something that first-year starters are having to figure out.

Kara Krantz is one of them, Brever said, as the junior's attitude on the field has shifted from passive to aggressive on defense.

"She's had to realize she's capable of being that all-district player," said Brever.

Center midfielder Gabby Cirigliano is another whose level of confidence is one of her best traits, especially given her pre-established skill set, the coach said, honing in on how she's even more willing to drive to the net this year than previously.

She has a potential top scorer in Alyssa Thompson to work with on the attack, as the senior in her second varsity season is "able to carry the ball very fluidly and she's not afraid to take a shot on goal," said Brever. "She's one of our stronger stick handlers."