What Kim Schuette did last year for the Eastern softball program is nothing short of remarkable.

She turned a team, accustomed to losing, and right away made it accustomed to winning.

She turned around a program that had experienced six straight losing seasons into its first winning season since 1998.

She had her team one win away from making the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament final and possibly, two wins away from the NCAA Tournament last year.

And now, she’s set the standard for the future of Eastern softball.

The Panthers (6-5) get back on the field today after nearly a two-week layoff out in sunny, San Jose, Calif., and the National Invitational Tournament, with temperatures expected in the 70s all weekend.

And how Eastern will play after nearly two weeks away from actual competition, and limited work on an outside facility is up in the air.

The Panthers have had practicing outside, getting the majority of their work done outside at O’Brien Stadium, the football field.

The teams Eastern faces this weekend aren’t guaranteed wins either.

Softball in California is played year-round, and with the Panthers facing six California teams during their six-day stay in the state, it will prove an early test to see how good this team can actually be.

And good they should be.

Picked sixth in the OVC, which senior shortstop Chelsea Adams said “kind of pissed us off just because we did have a good year last year so it was kind of like all that we did last year, they weren’t giving us any credit.”

Coming off a 36-26 season, with eight starters and their two top pitchers returning, and a sixth-place predicted finish should irk Schuette’s squad.

But her team is basically the equivalent of their head coach.

Laid-back, with a calm demeanor off the field, but intense and competitive as can be on the field,

Schuette is the perfect coach to blend with all the talent and experience she has on this year’s team.

Three seniors (catcher Sandyn Short, Adams and first baseman Katy Steele) are the main contributors this season, and have been in their first three seasons in Charleston.

This trio will and should carry this team.

Combine that with the speed (14 stolen bases through 11 games, compared with 5 stolen bases from their opponents) and sound defense (10 Panther errors compared to 21 opponent errors) Eastern has the special intangibles needed to make this season a memorable one.

“I just think it’s fun because for once I think, softball in general, is going to be a big topic (at Eastern),” Short said last week. “I think that the OVC teams that put us sixth are in for a very rude awakening. But that’s OK because we hope they take us a little bit for granted and show up and show them what we can do.”

What Schuette and her team can do is right there for them.

The standard has been set, and anything less than a deep run into the OVC Tournament, along with a possible NCAA Tournament berth, would be a disappointment for Eastern softball.

The two-week layoff gave the players a time to relax, think and prepare for the rest of the season.

Because the rest of the season, and the true measure of what this Panther softball squad can do, begins today.