While the basketball season starts in earnest over the winter months, the work to get there happens year ‘round.

Tamaqua’s girls’ team made the most of every opportunity to get better over the offseason.

The Blue Raiders made sure they had fun doing it.

“Starting off in the summer, we had a gym full every single workout we had,” said Tamaqua head coach Erika Davis. “I was very proud of the turnout. We opened it up to 7th through 12th, and we had anywhere from 20 to 30 girls present every time. So I was very pleased with that.

“I think we definitely worked on the things that we needed to and we kind of had fun, a lot more fun this year in doing it because they missed out on so much last year. It was just something that, as a coach, and as a former player, you just want things to run smoothly and have the girls get the experience they deserve. So we’re just grateful that we’re in season, and we want things back to normal as much as possible, obviously, and we’re just trying to just stay healthy, injury wise, prevent anything as much as we can.”

Depth and health will be vital for the Blue Raiders, who went 12-10 a year ago and qualified for the District 11 playoffs.

“We lost some experience, obviously, but we have a little bit returning,” said Davis. “We have a lot of youth, so they got a taste of the pace of the high school game as opposed to junior high, and that transition is always a bit tricky just because it’s now a 14-year old going up against an 18-year old type of thing. The strength and the speed, the quickness and all of that, that;s something with all of them being present in the summer they were able to kind of get a taste of that and improve their game and learn about the things that they need to adapt to as well.

“It’s been smooth so far. We’re trying to figure out the five that mesh together right now for us, with a mix of some returners and some new players. So we’re just trying to find out our chemistry right now.”

Tamaqua returns McKenna Meckes (9.82 points per game), Trenyce Wingler (9.43) and Serena Jones, who will be counted on as leaders on and off the court as the primary players with experience returning to help the squad compete in Division 1 of the Schuylkill League.

Meckes and Jones were Third Team selections on the Times News Girls Basketball All Star Team last year. Meckes was fifth in the area with 29 three-pointers last season, while Wingler added 25.

The Blue Raiders lose Sophia Boyle, who averaged 9.43 points per game last year.

“We’ll be really young in that aspect as far as experience, so we’ll definite have to utilize our bench,” said Davis. “It could be for a minute here and a minute there, but everybody needs to, and what we’re emphasizing is, know your role and fulfill your role to the best of your ability, and that’s what we’re going to be really emphasizing this year.

“We have speed that we can turn to. We haven’t always had speed across the board but we have a unit where we’ll use a lot of speed and athleticism and hopefully we can create a little bit of chaos defensively. Then we just have to be smart on the offensive end. We’re trying to find that balance between our offensive weapons and our defensive weapons, and we’re trying to utilize and put everybody in the correct position to make the best five out there. And when we sub, we have to make sure that we continue the momentum and not kill the momentum. That’s something that we’re always harping on. One turnover here, one turnover there could kill momentum, so we’re just trying to make sure that when we do sub that we could keep things rolling in the right direction, or give us that spark that we need.”

Though there is more inexperience than experience, Davis is grateful to have 22 girls to work with this year.

Gabby Robb, Kaziah Streisel, Ashley Jones, Sarah Hope, Sam Plasha and Kolbe Robb all figure to be in the mix this season.

“We have a lot of athletic girls,” said Davis. “We’re just trying to find out weaknesses and strengths and get a balance going for us.”