By MIKE HUGHES

For The Times Leader

CONNORVILLE–Year two begins under head coach Tom Valuska in Connorville with a little optimism.

The Panthers are coming off their best season (9-14) since a 10-win campaign back in 2018.

The team also returns two starters, technically three if not for injury issues a season ago.

But size will definitely be an issue, both in stature of the girls that take the floor, and in terms of the number of girls that are even attempting to take the floor.

“We’ve got a decent little group, but it’s a small group, just 13 girls,” Valuska said. “We’re not going to have any jayvee games as it’s just too tough to fill out a jayvee lineup with mostly upperclassmen.”

Numbers problems are starting to show up across the valley, so the Panthers are far from alone.

But as stated, this is a decent little group and it helps having back your two leading scorers.

One of those is senior guard Emily Valuska. The other is junior guard Brynn McKeever.

A third starter would have been senior Rylee Glover, but she opted to focus on track.

Junior Pam Kandrach (5-9) provides some muscle in the paint and now fully healthy will be a key fixture for Coach Valuska.

There are two other seniors on the roster. One, Carly Long (5-7) will join the starting lineup with Kaydence Kinyo (5-6) figuring to receive a good bit of playing time.

The fifth starting spot heading into the season will be filled by promising sophomore guard Alyssa Dailey.

“She’s a nice little player,” Valuska noted.

Three others 11th graders on this junior-laden team will also battle for playing time, including Panthers’ starting pitcher for softball, Samantha Ankrom, along with Nyja Short and Lizzie Stock.

Another sophomore who showed some potential and could earn some court time is Maddy Roset.

A trio of freshmen round out the roster in Karly Koran, Rhylee Darnell and Tera Carmalt.

“Maddy has come a long way and I like the way she’s playing and how she moves,” Valuska said.

While the team is lacking any legitimate size, it fortunately picked the right season to pick up its shooting percentages.

It will look to use that, along with its speed to its advantage as the Panthers will work to get the ball up and down the floor quickly.

“If we can keep an uptempo game, play solid fundamentals, but also under control, we can have success,” Valuska said. “We don’t really have a big, so we’ll be pushing, using pick and rolls, as well as our outside shooters.

“We probably have a better shooting team than we did last year.”

Like any team with smaller roster numbers, health will also be a factor as an injury to any of the key starters could be devastating.