It may be the toughest rebuilding job to replace one player that Polk County girls basketball coach Brandy Alm will ever perform.

As she begins her third season with the program, the good news for Alm is that she has to replace only one senior from last season’s squad. The bad news is that departed senior was Hayley Kropp, the school’s all-time leading scorer, who graduated and took her 26.3 points per game with her to Guilford Technical Community College.

Finding enough offense to replace Kropp’s contribution will be one of the keys this season for Polk County, which will be even younger than a season ago – no seniors are on the nine-player roster that will take the court for Tuesday’s season and home opener against East Henderson.

“We’ve told the girls that it’s hard for teams to stop a team that has multiple players who score in double digits,” Alm said. “That’s what we’re looking for. We have the athletes to score.

“A lot of our offense is going to come from our defense. But we’ve got to keep working and find that offense.”

The first place Alm will turn for offense will be junior Autumn Owen, an all-Western Highlands Conference selection last season after averaging 11.9 points per game. Owen had five games last season with 20 or more points and showed the ability to score from the perimeter as well as inside.

Alm also expects solid contributions from four other varsity returnees – Ansley Lynch, another all-WHC pick who could see time at every position this season, Mariah Overholt, Bella Marino and Karli Wood, who missed most of last season with an injury. Owen and Marino will serve as team captains.

“Autumn has been on varsity since her freshman year, and she’s a leader,” Alm said. “When she was a freshman, she looked up to Sarah Phipps and Kara Overholt. Last year, she looked up to Hayley. She’s had great captains to help her. Being a captain is in her nature and in her blood.

“Bella was on varsity last year and played a lot. Bella is a very compassionate leader and very compassionate with the players. I’m not worried about not having any seniors because I think those two captains will do a good job.”

Rounding out the roster will be 5-10 junior Willow Arkell, sophomore Kiri Ashley and freshmen Anna McFadden and Ava Marino.

“We’re going to be very aggressive and play a lot of different types of defenses,” Alm said. “We’ll mix it up and play hard, and hopefully that recipe will help our offense.

“They play well together and complement each other well. In our scrimmage, I was pleasantly surprised with how well we did.”

Polk County’s junior varsity girls will also begin play Tuesday under the direction of a new head coach, Amber Thompson.

-Submitted by PolkSports.com