It’s officially basketball season as the girls tipped off their season with a win over McKinney on Friday 43-37. Now, it’s the boys that are set to start their season on Saturday. This year they will be doing it with a new head coach, but the same expectations, as Danny Melton takes over for Marcus Eckert

“I expect to win districts, that’s always the expectation and then keep it running into playoffs,” Melton said. “We do have nine new faces on varsity this year, so there is always challenges with that, but with the exception of two players, they have all been in the program.”

Going 3-0 in warm-up scrimmages over the weekend, the team has the same mindset as its coach.

“I expect us to be going into the game focused and take our district opponents heavily and I expect us to win district,” junior Jadyn Bennett said. “This year we pride ourselves more on defense, because we’ve lost a lot of seniors but we also gotten a lot better communicating.”

With only three returning varsity players, the team is still trying to find its leaders.

“Last year we already had that leadership in place since six of those players were returning from being on varsity for three years,” Melton said. “So this year it’s only three returning players so they’re trying to figure out what leadership is all about.”

District play and the push to the playoffs is still more than a month away but the team already has high expectations.

“I expect us to go deep into playoffs this year and hopefully win state,” Bennett said. “On any given day one of these teams can lose and give us that opportunity.”