NAPPANEE – Coming into the 2016-17 girls basketball season, there is a different type of buzz in The Pit. And not the usual hoops mania that NorthWood has surrounding it as Halloween comes and goes.

The 2016 season wasn’t a typical season for the Black Swish lady hoopsters, at least record-wise. Finishing fourth in the Northern Lakes Conference after winning the title the year before, NorthWood struggled against a loaded schedule that included seven sectional champions, going 1-6 against them. A season that ended 14-12 overall was the first double-digit loss season for NorthWood since the 2002-03 season.

“I don’t think a “down year” is a fair statement,” noted Panther head coach Adam Yoder. “When you look at the big picture, there were a lot of people that felt like we would be in big trouble after 2014-15 with losing (Jordan) Frantz and (Haley) Roe, especially with the way the schedule shaped up last year with the number of great senior-laiden teams we played.

“In some ways, we overachieved in 2015-16, but we also let some slip away that we were in position to win, too. So for me personally, as I look at the season as a whole, I see it more as a glass half full rather than half empty.”

NorthWood scored 46.0 points per game a year ago, but shot just 38 percent from the floor as a unit, and graduated just over half of its team scoring in seniors McKayla Fielstra, Gabi Glass, Andrea Tuttle and Arika Flickinger.

But to point at stats and say the same will happen this year is foolish for a team that did win 14 games against a loaded schedule. Yoder comes into his third year with a 33-18 mark, going 19-6 in his first year in the shadow of legendary girls coach Steve Neff. Yoder returns eight from last year’s roster, including the top two scorers in senior Taitlyn Trenshaw and junior Savannah Feenstra.

Trenshaw is the pulse of the team, both verbally and structurally. Trenshaw is a four-year letterwinner with the Black Swish, having recorded per game stats of 8.9 points, 4.4 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 3.4 steals as a junior. At just 5’5″, Trenshaw is closing in on 200 career rebounds. Feenstra came on as a sophomore, scoring 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. The 6’0″ junior is the top post presence for the Panthers.

From there, seasoned depth will be an issue. Sophomores Kenzie Bergman (2.2 ppg) and Riley Hershberger (2.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg) are all that have significant time on the varsity court. Seniors Nicole Flickinger and Erin Graber return with limited action under their belts, as do sophomores Emily Demiturk and Neely Trenshaw.

Yoder noted that he is comfortable with his underclassmen, and really sees a bulk of them contributing in different ways.

“Taitlyn Trenshaw and Savannah Feenstra will be very important to our success in 2016-17, however, seniors like Nicole Flickinger and Erin Graber are great leaders, smart players, and understand how to point teammates toward the goals of our program,” Yoder noted. “That being said, our young players will have to play a role, and some of them got a lot of minutes last year. Riley Hershberger and Kenzie Bergman fought their way into a lot of minutes last year as freshmen and have been tremendously successful in track and soccer, respectively. Those experiences will be vital to our success as well.

“We’ll find a rhythm and rotation with a core group of girls, but I am so excited that we’ll have 15 girls on a given night that could contribute if called upon.”

NorthWood will open its season Thursday, Nov. 3, at South Bend Riley before hosting Penn on Saturday, Nov. 5, in its home opener. The Penn matchup was moved back from the original Nov. 1 date.