In his fourth season as head coach, Wes Spence has led the Parkland girls basketball program to four straight trips to the District 11 tournament, and last Friday night, their first LVC final since the 2006-07 season.

The late Patti Heffner was the coach of that team, and had brought the Trojans back to prominence after some down years, winning a state title in 2005-06.

Spence has done his part to keep Parkland near the top, but he believes his job was made easier because of the work done by Heffner.

"It was easy with the program that she had in place," Spence said. "She established a great foundation in what she wanted as a basketball program. The attention to academics, the effort they give, and the commitment to the program are some of the things are girls are used to. When I came in, we had fantastic kids and a great program, it was my job to not screw it up."

These hard working, committed girls have now been through a full cycle of time under Spence. The senior class have never played a game under Heffner, but have been under the tutelage of Spence since they arrived for their first days of Parkland basketball.

Spence credits the nine seniors: Allison Cressman, Sierra Derti, Lillie Geiger, Hannah Gombos, Abbey Harris, Callie Krajcir, Missy Oertner, Elena Pierce and Nikki Wert for learning a new system and being leaders to the younger players.

"I really want all the success in the world for those girls," said Spence. "They've done everything that we've asked them to do to become the type of people that represent Parkland basketball in a positive way. They've always been positive role models to everyone around them."

"I think he's done a great job of coming in and keeping this program at the top from where Patti [Heffner] had it," Gombos said. "As a group, we've all been together since middle school, so we've bonded a whole lot."

The Parkland girls basketball team haven't skipped a beat under Spence. Leading up to district play, he has guided the Trojans to an 18-6 mark, and a silver medal in leagues. Parkland defeated top-seeded Bethlehem Catholic (21-2), who had not lost a game to a team from Pennsylvania all season.

The Trojans will now head into the District 11 tournament as the third seed, and will take on No. 6 Pleasant Valley Friday night. They will look to make it past the quarterfinal round, where their season ended with a loss to Whitehall a year ago.