The girls’ basketball team is on their way to starting a new season, meaning the team has to deal with the loss of players from last year.

The team lost several players from last year’s team that really contributed to their success including Bri Walker, Anna Peterson, Lori Orbendorf, and Nia Flowers who transferred. All of these players were awarded All – Conference last season. “Obviously these are some pretty big shoes to fill,” said Coach Kalivas.

“One major thing we lost was height,” said Captain Kellee Clay. This puts the team at a disadvantage going into the season.

Even though the team lost height, with the new players they gained overall team speed, “We now have a lot of quick people on the team which we hopefully use to set up an offence,” said Clay.

Their new speed will enable them to set up an offense, but one thing that they could still rely on is the team’s overall defense. “We are going to use our defense to our advantage. We gained quick people which will really help our defense,” said senior Jenny Voytell.

The team last year had a good season, coming second in Conference with only seven losses. This is a large gain from the program which when starting only had seven wins.

The returning players understand that with the loss of all of the players from last year, the team really needs to step up their game. “I played a lot of basketball over the summer and I played a lot with the other girls on the team,” said Voytell.

Additionally with the loss of all of the players they see themselves “as an underdog, but were not going to let that impact the way we play our game,” said Voytell.

By Joe Riordan

Photo by Grant Bolle