Reign: Starling on season, defense.

Plenty of tidbits didn’t make it in to today’s story about the Reign defense. I’ll try to empty out the ol’ notebook here, starting with Chad Starling …

Starling lost 25 pounds over the summer. He’s trimmed from 245 to a noticeably svelte 220. “Just working out, eating healthy, keeping busy,” he said, among other things …

More on getting in shape: “I had a good summer training. The last couple summers, I had a bunch of surgeries and stuff. It was a good opportunity to get back in shape with the long summer. … I had knee, thumb and elbow surgeries the previous summer. We (the Cincinnati Cyclones) played until June 10 and I had surgery after that.”

On how much being in shape has helped: “I’ll be able to tell more when you get to December and January. Your body breaks down when you get late in the season.

On the defense: “A lot of familiar faces are coming back, then there’s some new faces. We’re a little bigger than we were last year. We should be good. Everybody didn’t know each other (last year). Coming into this year, we’re more familiar with everything. It’s that much easier coming in. It can help a lot.”

On the size advantage: “You’ve got to be able to move. If you have a bunch of big guys who can’t move, it’ll burn you. But I think we’re agile enough to move. We’ve got to get the puck to the forwards too.”

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.