By Jacob Heid

Sports Editor

ALMOND — The Almond-Bancroft girls’ basketball team began its season after a week of practice with a scrimmage Nov. 10 at home vs. Mauston. 

Youth is a focal point again in 2023-24 after the Eagles finished 22-4 (10-2) last year with six freshmen on the team and just two seniors.

Coming into another season with youth at the forefront, Head Coach Keith Dernbach saw plenty of things during the first action of the 2023-24 season. 

“A lot of good stuff,” Dernbach said when asked about what he saw throughout the scrimmage. “Ball movement I liked, (dribble) penetration was good out there. Shots will fall through the season. We’re young yet, we’ve got one senior starting, one junior out there and everybody else is sophomore or freshmen.”

Length is another big thing when looking at the Eagles as they soar into the season. 

That showed on the defensive end during the full-court session of the scrimmage. That will hopefully bleed into the season. 

Sophomores Mya Dernbach and Aaliyah Newby were a few impact players on the top while playing zone defense.

“With their long arms, that’s going to be a benefit to us to play that zone,” Dernbach explained. “We’re going to play a lot of zone this year just because of the length of our arms.”

One of the goals this season is to continue to build confidence through play on the floor.

Dernbach expects mistakes to happen but thinks playing through them will help Almond-Bancroft improve this season.

“We’re really concentrating on if we make mistakes out there, we’re just going to play through it,” Dernbach stated. “Just keep playing the game of basketball.”

Almond-Bancroft begins the regular season with a road matchup at Nekoosa on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m.