There will be a couple of changes on and off the court this season for the Western Tech girls basketball team.
Off the court, the Wolverines have a new coach in Alan Lagon.
Lagon, who also coaches the Western Tech football team, takes over for Nolan Roe.
Roe guided the 2013 Wolverines to the Class 1A state championship one year after leading the 2012 state finalists.
Lagon is looking forward to his new coaching venture that began with the Wolverines losing in the home opener 50-42 to Hereford.
"Baltimore is a basketball town and I've always loved basketball and it seemed like a good opportunity and Western has a tradition of winning in girls basketball," Lagon said. "I hope to continue that tradition."
Lagon can rely on the senior leadership of co-captains Deja Dennis (5-9) and Kaitlin Page (6-0).
"Kaitlin has really turned into a team leader off the court and Deja had turned into a team leader on the court," Lagon said.
They will be joined in the starting lineup by junior three-year varsity returnee Ashley Gourdine (5-7) at shooting guard, junior forward Madison Leggette (5-9) and freshman forward Kayla Spruill (5-11).
Dennis is a four-year varsity player and she'll handle the point guard duties.
"She is pretty versatile," Lagon said. "Deja is a laid back kid and she can do almost anything she wants to, but she is so laid back, she doesn't always do it."
Unlike past Western Tech teams that kept the pressure on all over the court and operated at a fast pace, this year's squad may rely more on the halfcourt game because of the size up from with Spruill, Leggette and Page.
"We have some good size and that's one of the reasons we are going to be more deliberate," Lagon said. "Kayla Spruill looks like she could be somebody special. She has a lot of potential."
Darlene Barrios (5-6), Bahja Bell-El (5-8), Jasmine Drayton (5-9), Kayla Moore (5-8), Mitsoo Patel (5-5) and first-year player Dammonnair Carter (5-7) provide depth off the bench.
"They are all high energy players and they are going to give you everything they got and expect them all to play a key role at some point," Lagon said. "A lot of kids just need to slow down."
But, he knew they had the energy on the first day of practice when he had the most girls try out for the team in school history.
"The girls are a lot tougher," Lagon said. "At the first practice, we had a lot of girls try out and we ran them a lot and they all came back on Monday. The first day of football practice we had the same situation, but a lot of kids didn't come back."
Otherwise, he doesn't see a lot of difference between coaching the sports.
"I see a lot of parallels because they are both team sports," he said. "You gotta play defense, you gotta hustle and you've got to be unselfish to be successful. I just want them to get better each and every week."