Call the Lady Hawks a work in progress, and the work will continue until coach Sandra Kazmierczak and her Thompson Falls netters get it right.

The Hawks open season play at the Mission Tournament Saturday. Kazmierczak said Plains, Deer Lodge, Anaconda, Mission, Darby, Loyola and Troy are all also expected to attend and that the tourney will be played in a round robin format.

Hit hard by graduation – the passing out of diplomas cost the Hawks four valuable starters earlier this year – Kazmierczak said she will build around returning All-State B performer senior Addy Deal and a promising supporting cast of players to build this year’s team.

“Addy is one to build around, she is a great leader, a role model for our younger players,” Kazmierczak said. “She leads by example and the other kids follow her.”

The Hawks’ only other senior, Aubrey Baxter is a first-year volleyball player, but an excellent athlete who is picking things up fast in practice Kazmierczak said.

Sophomores Audrey Fairbank and Marley Robinson are the other Hawks with extensive varsity experience. Junior Jasmin Risch would have been on the varsity last year if not for encountering an eligibility glitch and being denied the opportunity to play.

Kazmierczak said that with those players, and juniors Makarlie Stein and Veronica Vega, sophomore Angela Koskela and freshmen Shea Haas and Cammie Preston, that this group represents the current pool of players she is attempting to form a cohesive unit from.

“We have been working a lot on fundamentals, passing and positioning, serving, getting those things down,” she said. “We will be figuring things out better as we go these first few weeks.”

She said practice has been enjoyable the first few weeks, and that she has 21 players out so far. Coach Kaz said the team ended last week’s practices with a sleepover in the gym Friday night.