Dec 4, 2015 By Adam Brewer for The 3 min read

Having numbers and experience with those numbers are key for any high school basketball program.

After a positive year for the Mapletown girls basketball squad last season, the Lady Maples will look to not only battle their opponents in 2015-16, but also battle against low roster numbers.

Heading into the first week of practice, the Lady Maples had only seven players on their roster and six of the seven are freshmen.

Second-year coach Erik Smith knows the challenges that his team will face and is ready to play in the always competitive Section 3-A this season.

“We have low numbers this year and it’s hard to deal with,” Smith said. “But it is what it is. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us and we have to overcome this. It’s hard to find ways to practice with only seven players and we have to be careful with our conditioning. We are trying to recruit more players and hopefully get our numbers up before the season starts.”

The lone experienced player on Mapletown’s roster this season is sophomore guard Taylor Vanata (5-9). The Lady Maples lost five seniors from a year ago.

A year ago the Lady Maples finished with a 5-17 overall record and went 3-11 in the section.

“We finished strong last year,” Smith said. “We might not have had as many wins as I would have liked, but our level of play definitely picked up. We were a much better and consistent team at the end of the season than the beginning.”

One of the key components to the turnaround last year was the commitment to defense.

“If you have a strong defense, you give yourself a chance to win every night,” Smith expressed. “Our overall team defense was much better late in the year and we were winning some one-on-one battles in the defensive end. It’s always about effort and hustle on defense.”

As for goals this year, Smith states that the team will focus on competing every night.

“With our numbers it’s going to be tough,” he said. “But we can’t lose confidence and get down on each other. I just want us to compete every game and be ready for the challenges of the season. We have to play as a team.”

The Lady Maples have missed the postseason seven straight seasons. The last time Mapletown made the playoffs was in 2007-08 when the Lady Maples compiled an overall record of 14-7 and went 6-4 in section play. Their season came to an end with a first-round defeat to Quigley.

Mapletown will jump into action to begin the year at the Avella Tipoff Tournament on Dec. 4-5.