If the summer is any indication about the upcoming Whitehall girls basketball season, then it's safe to say that the kids will be all right.

Veterans Taylor George, Ivanna Jones, Jillian Rex, Jill Kreglow and Alix Buskirk will be the foundation heading into this season, games in the Stellar Tournament, for example, featured some solid interior play from Ariana Hines, who played junior varsity last year, and Kylee Cunningham who was deadly from the perimeter in the second half of the game.

Hines did a good job on the boards at Stellar and the is that translate when the winter season rolls around.

Another younger player who has seen plenty of time this summer is Taylor Rummel. Head coach Dwight Repsher said that Rummel, who's going to be a sophomore, is in that mix of young players who will help them this season.

"She's a good shooter," said Repsher. "The first time we played Allen in the summer league, we were up one, and then she hit three threes and we ended up winning by ten."

Repsher once again reiterated that summer is about developing young players, making sure they get plenty of playing time in the offseason so that it benefits the team once the season starts. He said it's important for them to play right now. It's also important that they have fun while also gaining that experience.

"The key to us has to be balance," said Repsher. "If we go into the season and want to have a star, or two, we're not going to win. We need to share the ball."

While he was cautious in heaping too much praise on his squad after Stellar, he was pleased with their interior passing which feeds into sharing the ball.

"We did a good job with that and got some easy baskets," he said.

Even with some success this summer, Repsher knows they have a long way to go. They still don't have a lot of size and will need their perimeter game to open things up inside. At times in the summer, the team demonstrated they have that ability to do just that as George, Rex and Cunningham were hitting those outside shots.

Whitehall opened the Stellar Tournament with a 39-31 win over Northwestern. That put them opposite Dieruff in the next bracket, but they lost to the Huskies After getting bounced into the elimination bracket, Whitehall reeled off seven wins to reach the finals against Parkland. However, the long day took its toll as they began Sunday with a 9:30 a.m. start against Allen, and then followed that with three more games before meeting the Trojans.

Respher said that when they ran their opening sets to begin the game, they were getting open looks but the ball was well off its mark.

"I said right away, we're in trouble because there's no more gas in the tank," said Repsher.

That was the case as they fell 33-14 to Parkland.

Still, to fight their way back through the elimination bracket showed the area competition what's in store for them this year. Along the way they defeated Dieruff who had beaten them the day before, and then played their best game of the tourney against Stroudsburg to reach the finals. Repsher said during one stretch in that game they reeled of eight consecutive points to put the game out of reach.

"We probably opened up some eyes," said Repsher "It was definitely hard, that's for sure. I wish there was an easier way to do it. Playing all those games in the elimination bracket, makes it difficult to compete. It was brutal. I was really proud of our kids."

The experience will also help build confidence as they get ready for this season.

"It leaves everybody excited and encouraged leading up to the season," said Repsher. "That's a good thing."

In the win against Allen, Jones had 23 points. In their wins over Salisbury and Boyertown, George had 13 and 14 points, respectively. She also poured in 17 points in the opener against Northwestern, connecting on four three-pointers. Both George and Jones were on the all-tournament team.