CHARLO — The Charlo Lady Vikings basketball program is looking to improve on its third place finish in the Western Class-C Divisionals last season according to Lady Vikings’ Coach Bret Thompson.

Last season, the Lady Vikings finished the season with a team record of 17-7.

The Lady Vikings are returning one starter from last season’s team, senior guard Cheyenne Nagy. The other player returning from last season’s team is post player Sakoya Gaustad.

“We’ve got two girls coming back from torn ACLs that we will this year,” Thompson said. “They won’t be 100 percent. We lost Brooklyn Foust at the end of volleyball season. She tore her ACL.”

Because of the lack of experience, Thompson admits his team is going to experience some “growing pains” headed into their season-opening Ronan Tip-Off Tournament against Clark Fork Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Salish Kootenai College.

“We are going to have growing pains.” Thompson said. “It is going to take us a while to play at the level we played last year. We have good athletes and I think we will be OK. There will be some nights where we look really good and some nights where we look like it’s our first-ever varsity experience.”

The Lady Vikings will have to compete in a loaded conference that includes an Arlee Lady Scarlets team that finished its season in the Class-C semifinals last year.

“Optimism is about all we have to keep these girls going forward,” Thompson said. “I think we have a good schedule and a lot of good teams. Our young girls are up for the challenge. We will not make things easy for anyone else in our conference.”