Head Coach Tony Thomas has been here before. Building a program is never easy and working from the ground up it takes time.

The past few seasons have been tough for the Northern Lehigh Girls Basketball program. But what has been lean in on court success it has been strong in heart. Even after only notching two wins last year, there is optimism in the progress of the program."We're not gauging our success on wins and losses," Thomas said of his program. "We know we are building and we are trying to change and do things that will make us successful. But there will be growing pains."To make the growing pains worse is that this team lost nine players from last year's roster, six of whom had significant time on the court leaving just three seniors and one junior as upper classmen. Coach Thomas admits "we are young and inexperienced", but the seniors are doing a great job of leading."There is a lot of good leadership on this team," Thomas said of the upper classmen. "They are looking forward to being out there (playing) again."The Lady Bulldogs return their leading scorer, Jess Olewine. The senior led the team in three-pointers and came on strong at the end of the season with four straight double digit games including a 21-point effort in the final game of the year against Lehighton.Senior Emily Beavans also finished strong with double digit points in two of the last five games averaging 7.5 points per game in that stretch as a role player. Senior Amber Thomas (12 games) and "promising" junior Taylor Gallimore (14 games) who played in the final nine games will also share in the leadership role.The underclassmen will have a major role in the season as Coach Thomas could go deep into the bench in playing ten or eleven girls in a game. Sophomores Karlyna Kemery and Jennifer Knerr, look to build on their limited playing time last season, are also joined by Meghan Handwerk.Freshman Jillian Olewine and Kaitlin Hoffman will fill into the mix and could even be on the court during tip off of some games.These are just two of the freshman class that has been successful on the court in the lower levels.Jillian, sister of the senior leader, looks to follow in her sisters footsteps. Coach Thomas likened Hoffman's size to that of former Lady Bulldog and current Army forward Aimee Oertner when she was a freshman in high school. That size has been missing from the Northern Lehigh front line since Oertner has graduated and Thomas has cautioned there will be growing pains with the development of young athletes.Coach Thomas feels this team's strengths are in the leadership provided by the seniors. Their encouragement has set the tone on how this team will play. Their togetherness has led them to play well on the court and jell together as a team."The young core is hungry. They've had success as a team and they don't want to lose," Coach Thomas said. "They are also young and they are going to make mistakes, but they are also going to learn how to play through those mistakes. "