Northampton is approaching this weekend’s Stellar “Catch a Rising Star” Basketball Showcase with a sense of caution and dose of optimism.

The Kids could have their full lineup at their disposal or they’ll have players missing, likely weakening their chances to last in the annual Cedar Beach event.

Northampton opens play on Thursday night at 8 p.m. against Boyertown with the winner getting the opportunity to play a seeded Allen team on Friday night.

Head coach Coy Stampone is expecting to have players missing throughout the tourney, but hopes that he’ll have enough firepower to last until Sunday’s final day of action.

“If we take anything from the summer, we just try to improve,” Stampone said. “We try and put kids in different positions and see how they fare. We haven’t had a full team in the summer league yet and with this being open period for the NCAA, a lot of players are playing with their AAU teams, so we’ll see how things work out.”

Stampone was alluding to players from all teams in the tournament that might be missing guys in action this weekend because of AAU, but has the situation in-house with upcoming junior guard Aiden Ellwood.

Ellwood has AAU contests in Philadelphia this week and is likely to miss Thursday’s opening game of Stellar.

However, having him back in the fold is a boost for the Kids program after losing him to Central Catholic his sophomore year, following his stellar freshman year at Northampton.

“We’ve always had a good relationship with Aiden, even when he was at Central,” Stampone said. “He gives us points but can also distribute and make our shooters better. He’s definitely a boost.”

It’s not only Ellwood that Stampone is excited about developing, but also other players on the roster like Morgan Heffelfinger (sr., C), Tanner Hahn (sr., SG), Jahmari Austin (sr., G/F), Joey Tocci (sr., SG) and incoming freshman guard Nick Filchner.

“Those guys are going to be key for us this winter,” said Stampone. “They’ve had good showings in summer league and we just need to have them get better.”