SUPERIOR – As winter settles into Mineral County, the varsity girls of Superior High School begin preparations for the 2013-14 basketball season.

This year, the team has 22 girls. Head Coach Jeff Schultz said this was the most he ever had on the team in his seven years as the girl’s basketball coach.

According to Schultz, most of the girls have played basketball for the team before. This year, there were only about five girls on the team who were brand new to the sport.

Schultz has looked forward to the season and the job as coach for those players. He said it was a good test of his ability as inexperienced players were a good milestone for the team’s improvement.

“It’s a good opportunity for us coaches to really test if we’re any good,” Schultz said.

Many of the girls have recently returned from the Lady Bobcat’s volleyball team. It was estimated there were 10 girls who had not been on the volleyball team during the spring season.

Schultz said this may lead to complications as the volleyball girls already have an understanding of each other’s strengths and positions. However, Schultz does not believe this will be too much of a problem compared to other issues.

Schultz believes the biggest challenge will be one of experience. Many of the girls on the team have not played varsity level basketball before. However, the problem should solve itself since the girls will gain plenty of experience by the end of the season.

While only in the first week of practice, Schultz said the girls look good as a team. His plans are to prevent a lot of turnovers and keep the ball in Superior’s possession. Schultz said this was one of the taller teams he had coached and hopes for it to provide an advantage in controlling the ball.

The team’s height is not expected to have much of an impact on how the girls train. Schultz described it as a luxury and said it might offer some advantages in terms of rebounds and what shots could be made.

In basketball, height can sometimes be a bad thing. Taller players are usually a little less agile and can hinder a player’s speed. However, Schultz said this is not the case with Superior’s team this year.

“All of our tall girls are quite fast,” said Schultz. “Some of our taller girls are probably some of the fastest on the team.”

Schultz said the conference this year will be a hard one. With all the good teams, he felt there were no games he could overlook or take for granted.

To prepare for the challenges, the team has been working hard to ensure it is ready for the games – a goal Schultz is confident the Lady Bobcats can achieve.

“That’s one thing about this team that’s kind of their trademark is how hard they work,” said Schultz. “From top to bottom, they are exceptionally hard working…but really dedicated to trying to get better every single day.”