After suffering through a 4-20 season last year on the basketball court, the Vian Lady Wolverines, who will open their season at 6 p.m. Dec. 2 against Central at B.J. Traw Gymnasium in their home opener, look for success under secondyear coach Athena Mc-Coy.

The Lady Wolverines return three seniors from last year’s team — guard Halli Russell, who has scored 303 points over the last two seasons, and post players Rayleigh Terrill (114 points over the last two seasons) and Kiah Richardson (90).

Two juniors back from last season are Shelbie Glass and Aliyah Tucker.

Sophomores Emry Smith, Blazi Dieter, Bostyn Rogers and Brooklyn Cox also are coming back from the 2024-25 campaign.

The remaining roster players are comprised of new faces — sophomore Gentri Lageveen, a move-in from Sallisaw, along with freshmen Gracie Buttery, Tinley Gibson, Payton Crutchfield, Raylan McEver and Olivia Lovell.

“As a young athletic team composed of several freshmen and sophomores, we are excited about the upcoming season,” Mc-Coy said. “We have four returning players from last year (Russell, Terrill, Richardson and Glass), which brings valuable experience to the court. Our summer was filled with productive workouts, camps and several (summer) league games. We are eagerly looking forward to seeing what this season brings for the Vian Lady Wolverines basketball program.”

McCoy believes her senior trio of Russell, Terrill and Richardson will be her team’s strength because of them bringing valuable varsity experience to the court, which she said “is a good thing for our underclassmen.”

Since McCoy’s team will be comprised of 13 underclassmen, this season will basically be a classroom on the hardwood each game.

“Being such a young team this year, we are looking forward to this season, and the growth of our team will show over the course of the season,” she said.

Editor’s Note: Look for a basketball seasonpreview story on the Vian Wolverines in a later edition.