Varsity women’s basketball tips off to an early start this year, with tryouts starting two days before prior years in order to face difficulties moving up into the ‘A’ conference.

Tryouts started on Nov. 5, as opposed to last year when they started on Nov. 7. “We are moving up into the ‘A’ conference which means we have our work cut out for us,” team captain senior Mackenzie Reese said.

Not only are tryouts two days before previous years, but they are also ten days before public schools, whose tryouts will begin on Nov. 15. “I think that we start before public schools because not only have we moved up into the ‘A’ conference, but we need to start practicing and working together as a team as soon as possible,” team captain senior Sam Clarke said.

As well as moving into the ‘A ‘conference, the team also lost five seniors last year. Out of those, three were starters.

“We have a completely different dynamic to the team this year which only means more people will have the chance to step up,” Reese said.

The last day of tryouts was on Nov. 7, with the official teams being posted an hour after tryouts ended at 6:00 p.m. The final roster of the varsity team consists of captain and senior Mackenzie Reese, captain and senior Sam Clarke, senior Taylor Smith, junior YeMaya Johnson, junior Nina Profili, junior Rita Watson, junior Haley Kyger, junior Marta Moix, sophomore Ola Ekundayo, sophomore Madison Shutz, sophomore Ashley Hunter, and sophomore Morgan Santiago.

“Our first game is on Nov. 24, so we need to do everything we can to be prepared and that starts by trusting each other and working very hard in pre-season to prepare,” Reese said.