Last season, Northern Lehigh anticipated the type of season that produced just three wins in 22 games.

Then again, when a team loses nine of 12 players from the previous year, a rebuilding campaign is definitely in the making.

This winter, things should be different for the Bulldogs, who are now a senior-ladened team with seven of their 14 players in their final season.

“We lost a lot of kids from the COVID year,” said head coach Pat Wanamaker, who will begin his third year at the helm. “We expected to have a hard year last season.

“But we had a number of kids who gained valuable experience last year, and our expectations are high this year. We have a number of seniors, and that should help.”

Even though they appear to have a solid lineup, the Bulldogs did lose senior point guard Ethan Parvel, who transferred back to Whitehall, where he began his high school career.

Aside from Parvel, the Bulldogs have seniors Austin Smyth, Izaiah Ramos, Nick Frame, and A.J. Jiminez back in the fold. Smith will be in the middle for the Bulldogs. All four are football players, and Wanamaker believes it may take a while for them to make the transition.

“Those four guys will be our core,” said Wanamaker. “We should be a better team with the experience the four of them gained.”

Fellow seniors Bryce LoPinto and Ethan Kunkel should both see significant minutes - likely off the bench. Junior Nick Buskirk should be in the regular rotation.

“They both got time last year, and we expect them to heighten their game,” said Wanamaker. “We’ll look to Buskirk to do some big things for us as well.”

Despite the experience the Bulldogs have, it would be understandable if they take a while to hit their peak.

“I think we’ll have some growing pains early,” he said. “But we should be competitive from the start.

“It just might take the football players a bit to get their basketball legs back. At the start of practice, we didn’t have the four football players who will be a main part of our team. But that did allow all of the other players to gain some valuable time to work on their game.”

Wanamaker sees sophomore Connor Simms as the leading candidate to replace Parvel at the point.

“He’ll get the first crack at it,” said Wanamaker. “Connor saw some minutes as a freshman last year, and he really put a lot of time in his game during the offseason.”

Wanamaker wants to run an up-tempo game, and anticipates any of the five players on the floor to possibly run the point.

“We want to push the ball up the floor,” said Wanamker. “I think we will be able to run an offense from that.”

The Bulldogs opened the season in the Hamburg Tip-Off Tournament on Friday. They will open Colonial League play by hosting Notre Dame of Green Pond on Tuesday.

With a senior-based team, Wanamaker is confident that the Bulldogs can raise the bar this winter.

“We definitely have higher expectations this season,” he said. “We played some good basketball at the end of last year. We believe we can hit our stride sooner this year.”