As the Mitchell Christian girls' basketball season gets under way tonight at Wolsey-Wessington, the numbers might be stacked against the Golden Eagles for the first time in years.
First, there is the fact that only 10 girls are out for the team this year -- and the fact that the Golden Eagles will start two freshmen, and four of the team's top seven players will be ninth graders.
Furthermore, the team lost four starters from last year's squad that finished 21-1 and didn't lose until the district final against Hanson.
And of course, there is always the most daunting number of all -- 3,317.
That's the number of points that graduated senior Jill Young -- now at South Dakota State -- scored in her five-year career at MCHS, setting the girls all-time state scoring record. Now, sixth-year head coach George Erdahl and the rest of his MCHS team will face the unenviable task of moving on without their leader.
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"You don't replace a Jill Young," Erdahl said. "They come along once in a lifetime. In small-town basketball like we have, you have to play with what you have."
In addition to Young, who scored 29.9 points per game last seson, the Golden Eagles also lost experienced starters Tiffany Tolsma (13.2 points), Mica Olson (8.6) and Tawni Buhler (5.3). Together, those four players were the Golden Eagles' four leading scorers and rebounders last year. Still, Erdahl said his team isn't thinking about last year at this point.
Despite the big losses from last year, the Golden Eagles do have a number of talented players in the fold this season, though most will be young. MCHS is ranked No. 9 in the preseason South Dakota Newspaper Association poll.
Guard Sydney VanLaecken, who started quite a bit last season, will be the team's only senior, and Erdahl said the team will be looking to her for experience and leadership.
Natahsa Klumb, a junior, also got some playing time last season, and she will start at forward. Nadine McDaniel will also start as a junior forward, freshman Mariah Nelson will start at center and freshman MacKenzie Van Laecken will start at guard. The top two players off the bench are expected to be Meghan Dixon and Abby Frey, both freshmen.
"We're young," Erdahl said. "Other than Sydney, we really don't have a lot of experience on the varsity level. We're going to have to come out in these first few games and get as much experience as we can."
The Golden Eagles will get that first chance tonight on the road against Wolsey-Wessington at 6:30 p.m. Erdahl said it's hard to know much about what other teams will have this early in the season, but that Wolsey-Wessington has had good teams in the past, and he doesn't expect that to change.
