The once silent gym fills with the sounds of the girls’ basketball team striving to improve. Teamwork is stressed in practice as their first game rapidly approaches.

“This is a rebuilding year for us,” point guard Hilary Kell, ’05, said. “We have a lot of young players this year who are not as tall as last years players so we are relying more on teamwork than good players.”

Despite their disadvantages, head coach Dan Avila believes the team will do well in league this year.

“I know that we will place any where from first to fourth in the league,” Avila said. “They play really well together and you can tell that they are all there because of their love for the game.”

With a younger squad than in years past, Avila is hoping that the few upperclassmen on the team will help the newcomers adjust to the level of play.

“Our team is really young this year,” Avila said. “We only have three seniors, but they help our younger players to become acquainted with the system.”

Avila helps the girls to build skills by pointing out the offensive play of the opposing team so they can win by utilizing their defensive strengths.

“He picks out the opposing team’s offense so that we can set up our defense to our advantage,” Kell said. “Coach works very hard, so we work very hard for him. We have a strong and aggressive defense and we are going to have a really good time this year.”

The coach agrees that defense is where the girls are the strongest.

“They are very aggressive when it comes to defense,” Avila said. “Tara Thompson [’04] is probably our most defensive player, but Kell is our best offensive player. The seniors are leading the team, though.”

The girls next play on in the CVC Invitational Tournament on Dec. 18-20. Their next lead game is on Jan. 6 at Fowler.