The Salisbury girls basketball team went 8-13 last year.

But the fact that five of those wins came in the final six games of the season gives the team something to build on as it heads into the 2025 season.

The Falcons graduated just one player from that team, which played under a first-year head coach.

“Toward the end of the season we started gelling as a team,” said Laky. “I knew coming in that there would be some adjustment period for the players with the new coaching and maybe a different style, different direction. Winning five of those last six games puts us in a pretty good direction.”

If there is a concern for this season, it’s the lack of players.

Laky has just eight players on his team - two seniors, two juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen, which isn’t even enough to play five-on-five at practice. Many of the bigger teams that Salisbury will face have 15 players on their roster.

“It’s a little tough to navigate, but I’m confident with what he have that we can compete,” said Laky. “The freshmen that we have don’t really have any playing experience, let alone varsity experience.”

Salisbury’s defense was a key for the team last season and Laky believes that with the core group returning for another year, teams may struggle to score against his squad. With the defensive side of the court in good shape, Laky is trying to develop some offense this season.

“Offense wasn’t really big last year with us, so we relied on our defense,” he said. “This year we need to get into some sort of offensive flow more consistently, and I think we should be more competitive on that end. Defensively, we’ll be fine.”

One of the two seniors on the roster, Kendra Morgan, is coming off a successful season in field hockey and she hopes that the basketball team can find its own rhythm. One goal is for the team to reach districts.

“Absolutely, that’s a goal,” said Morgan. “We’re putting in the work and I really think that if we all stay together and give it our all, it’s very possible we could reach districts. Last year we kind of started from the lowest point and worked our way up, so this year we’re starting from a different level and just need to jump up from there.”

Laky sees a lot to believe in with this team even if the numbers are low and much of the roster has little experience.

“When I got hired,” he said, “I looked back at the past few seasons and we only had five wins in three years before last season, and we got eight wins last year. Honestly, we should have made districts, but we left a few games on the table that were close. We just weren’t ready to win yet, but I think this year we can change some of that. I’ll put our girls up against anybody. That’s how confident I am in these girls.”