WILKES-BARRE — The coach may be new, but the players are all the same.
Wyoming Area returns five starters for Mark Casper’s first season as girls basketball head coach.
“I’m the new old guy or the old new guy, depending how you look at it,” Casper said during the Wyoming Valley Conference Girls Basketball Media Day at Grotto Pizza. “We have five returning starters, I’m happy to say. That’s the good news. The bad news is they’re all seniors.”
Casper, who has 10 years experience as a varsity assistant and 27 as a middle school head coach, said he expects the team to be 7-8 players deep.
“We put a lot of changes in and the kids have bought into all of it and are working their tails off,” he said.
All-star forward Morgan Janeski leads the way after averaging team-highs of 11.6 points and 5.8 rebounds last season.
“We have eight returning seniors, which includes pretty much our entire varsity team,” Janeski said during Coaches vs. Cancer Media Day at Riverfront Sports in Scranton Nov. 27. “With all that experience and a new coach, we should have a very good season.”
Point guard Halle Kranson led the team in assists with 3.4 per game.
“I think we were very open to a change as a team collectively,” Kranson said. “Coach Mark has been here the last two years, so it’s a pretty smooth transition.”
Jocelyn Williams was second on the team with 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds while leading in steals with 2.2. Anna Wisnewski was third with 6.7 points.
“We all have very high hopes and we set our standards very high for this season,” said Olivia Rome, the other returning starter.
Senior Olivia Allen, junior Morgan Slusser and sophomores Krea Bonita and Kendall Day all appeared in at least 11 games last season.
The Lady Warriors finished 7-5 in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 last season.
