HOT SPRINGS – Hot Springs’ Lady Savage Heat began their practices last week, in preparation for this year’s basketball season.

Head Coach Michelle Hunter was confident about how the team looked after tryouts and at the initial practices. She felt they would do well and should be able to win a few of their games this year if they keep their pace up.

The Lady Savage Heat have a fairly young team this year. There are no seniors among the 13 girls with lots of freshmen and sophomores. However, the coach does not expect this to be a problem.

While it is a fairly young team, it is an experienced one. All of the girls have played basketball before, either in varsity or on the junior high team. The bigger challenge will be getting the younger players ready for the varsity level of play. So far, though, things have been looking good.

Hunter noted many of the freshmen girls had shown lots of improvement since their last games on the junior high team last year. She felt the girls had improved a lot in their skills and quickness on the court.

This year will see lots of tough competition for the Hot Springs girls. Hunter felt Plains would be a strong competitor, as a new addition to Class C; she also recalled Charlo and Arlee were usually very strong teams.

The Hot Springs basketball teams will begin their season on December 4 and 5 at the kickoff tournament in Frenchtown. During the weekend, they will face off against teams like Plains, Arlee and Charlo, among others.

Hunter said they had just enough practice days before the tournament to get ready to play. There is lots of information to convey, though, so the girls will be pushing to prepare themselves.

“There’s a lot of information and practicing to get in by then,” she said.