By Jason Blasco

Lake County Leader

ARLEE — Arlee girls basketball coach Bill Stockton has a luxury most coaches don’t’ have as he prepares to enter the 2016-2017 campaign with a mixture of youth and experience.

Stockton’s Scarlet team has height and lots of it despite losing six seniors from last year’s team to graduation.

“Our big advantage headed into this season is going to be our height and our post play,” Stockton said. “We have the ability to score with these tall girls with long arms. Though it will be tough replacing the leadership out of the senior girls (that we lost), we aren’t really sure what to expect. Some of the younger girls will have to step up and do that.”

Three critical players Stockton mentioned will return for the Scarlets are post player Alyssia Vanderburg, Carly Hergett, and Bryndle Goyins.

Vanderburg is the Scarlets’ tallest player at 6 feet 1 inches, Hergett stands at 6 feet tall and Goyins is 5 feet 11 inches tall.

“The big part of our summer program games we played against some tough teams ,” Stockton said. “The younger girls traveled to Townsend and Montana State camp. In our practices we are making sure that we are competing at a high level every day. Sometimes it’s hard to stimulate that game experience in practice and we are trying to make sure that we are doing that.”

According to Stockton, the back court will be an area where his team will be experimenting this season.

“We aren’t 100 percent sure right now because we have a young sophomore and one junior that could really step up and fill in the positions,” Stockton said. “We may play Carly Hergett at the point guard position. She played on the wing last year and really helped bring the ball up the court. We will try some different things. We have to replace two girls that we lost so that is a possibility.”

Other players that Stockton said he felt will play a critical roll include Junior guard Ashley Tanner, sophomore guard Sydni Rogers, and sophomore guard Nowell West.

Stockton said he looks at having a younger roster as an “advantage” headed into the season.

“It is an advantage for a couple of different reasons and it gives us an opportunity to try different lineups,” Stockton said. “Those girls are all going to be competing for who is going to have them.”