They say there’s a first time for everything.

And the Jim Thorpe girls basketball program is making the most of piling up “firsts” throughout the 2018-19 season.

The team posted its first-ever undefeated regular season, going a perfect 22-0.

The Olympians then gained their first Schuylkill League championship in program history, knocking off a talented Mahanoy Area team in the title game.

Now, the squad will be playing in its first District 11 championship game.

Jim Thorpe head coach Rob Kovac and his Olympians will travel to Freedom High School tonight to take on top-seed Bethlehem Catholic at 6 p.m. in the Class 4A title tilt.

To Kovac, this year’s squad has made a name for itself.

“What we have accomplished is we beat a Mahanoy Area team in the Schuylkill League championship game,” said Kovac, who has been to three other district title games when he coached the Panther Valley girls. “And now, we play Bethlehem Catholic Saturday night for a district championship. We are also ranked eighth in the state right now on PennLive.

“We’ve just gone on being Jim Thorpe, a small public school. The kids play hard, play smart and play right. Suddenly, they’re a team who is being talked about in the same regards as Bethlehem Catholic and Lancaster Catholic. We’re the highest ranked public school right now.”

After missing out on districts a year ago with a 6-16 record, the Olympians are back to write another page in the program’s history book.

Thorpe rolled to a win in the quarterfinals (60-31 over Wilson) and handled Tamaqua in the semis (42-27) to get to the finals.

Getting their hands on their first-ever district championship trophy, however, will be a tough task.

“Becahi is the most talented, most deep, and most athletic team we have seen all year,” said Kovac of the Golden Hawks (22-4). “They’re very athletic. They’re skilled. And, they come in numbers. They’re bigger than us. Probably faster than us. And, there’s a lot more of them.

“I watched their game in the EPC final and they’re scary. But, having said that, there’s things we are going to have to do if we’re going to make it a competitive basketball game.”

Kovac keys to the game include controlling the tempo, holding the Hawks to one shot and done, and limiting their own turnovers. He also pinpointed a trio of Hawks to watch.

“No. 13 (freshman Kourtney Wilson) is tremendous. She’s a future D-1 player. Not just D-1, she’s a power-five kid. She will play in a Big Five Conference one day,” Kovac stressed. “No. 5 (Briana Barnard) is active. Big off the boards. If we let her catch in the high post, we’re in trouble. And, No. 22 (Abigail Brown) is a really nice player. She’s an enigma because she’s real big and strong. But she can also step outside and hit the three.”

With both programs having a lot of youth — Jim Thorpe starts three freshmen (Skyler Searfoss, Olivia Smelas, Leila Hurley), one junior (Kristen Scott) and one senior (Natalia Richards) and one of the Hawks’ starters is only a freshman — it may be possible this could be the first of many encounters between the two teams.

“We have our hands full on Saturday,” Kovac said. “They’re a different animal. But we’re going to play some zone and try to make them beat us from the three-point line.

“Cross your fingers that they don’t make threes, and we rebound the ball. If you do those things, we will be successful.”