Depth is such an underrated aspect of high school basketball.

And this year, Panther Valley could potentially dress up to 14 athletes on a given night.The larger, more experienced rotation will give the Panthers the ability to do things that they couldn't last year."It makes a difference when you have a lot of subs that can play varsity basketball at that level," said Chloe Markovich, who is one of the team's two seniors. "Last year was an adjustment. I think we have a lot of talent this year, we need to come together and play offense and defense as a team. I think we have a lot more height this year, which really helps on the defensive end. I want us to come out every game knowing that we did the best that we could have done. I think we can get a lot more wins, and I would be happy with that."PV will return leading scorer Christina Dacey, who averaged a team-high 8.82 points per game last year. She will likely play off the ball more this season."I'm expecting big things (out) of Christina (Dacey) this year," said Panther Valley head coach William "Dapper" Lynn. "Our plan is to move a freshman (Megan Pascoe) to point guard, so I can move Christina. We want to get her on the wings and let her do things on her own. Shes' a very good one-on-one player. She's not stingy, and that's her problem. I tell her to shoot the ball. Last year, she never sat. I think she was exhausted by the middle of the third quarter. This year I can rest her because we have more depth."Markovich is by far the Panthers' biggest deep threat, having drained 27 three-pointers last season.However, Lynn wants his team to put the ball on the floor and be aggressive, as the team shot only 239 free throws last season."I need Chloe Markovich to score points," the Panthers' coach said. "I need her to get on the foul line. We've been stressing to go to the basket. We need to get teams in foul trouble, and that's something we didn't do last year.Despite dressing 14 players, the Panthers will likely stick to a rotation of eight or nine players. That deep rotation gives the Panthers a few extra tools in the toolbox."We're going to play man-to-man this year," explained the PV coach. "I played zone last year because we couldn't play man. I think we're a lot quicker now and I'm probably going to dress 14 varsity players.The mentality of the team is also changing."I have eight kids coming off the district (volleyball) championship team and that helps with a winning mentality. One of the things that I noticed is that there's more talking on the court. We condition for the first half-hour every day in practice. We also focus a lot on foul shots."At the end of the day, Lynn wants his Panthers to be competitive."I told the girls to take it one game at a time, they want to make districts," Lynn said. "That's our goal. We want to be competitive, and it starts with playing defense and rebounding. I'm hoping for big things"The Panthers will open the season on Dec. 13 at Palmerton."They're a good group that works really hard, and they never miss workouts or practice," added Lynn. "Good things are coming."