The Centralia girls were busier than usual this summer.

The Lady Panthers finished 10-3 across five shootouts with a roster devoid of five seniors that graduated from last season’s third-place Class 3 team.

 We probably played in more shootouts this summer than we normally do,” head coach Megan Brinkmann said. After graduating five seniors, I really wanted to see how some of our players adjusted to the varsity level, how we gelled and worked together, and really get an idea of where we are offensively and defensively to start planning for the fall.”

Centralia won three games at Westran against Glasgow, Westran and Paris; won two out of three games in Monroe City against Clopton and Mexico; defeated Salisbury and lost to Quincy Notre Dame at South Shelby; defeated Boonville in a pick-up game in Boonville and lost to Tipton in a pick-up game in Tipton; and won three games in Paris against Salisbury, Cairo and Westran.

Brinkmann said returning varsity players Ryenn Gordon, Braylin Brunkhorst and Madi Johnson did well in setting a tone for the team’s culture and guiding the less experienced players.

“Our coaching staff was very pleased with how we performed over the summer,” Brinkmann said. “We have lots of players in new roles and it was good to see players step up offensively and defensively. We really think we can see a mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors in our varsity program this year.”

Junior varsity played in several shootouts this summer as well.

“They competed and got better every game,” Brinkmann said. “We could see the growth over the summer and really just wanted the incoming freshman to understand a few concepts, adjust to high school basketball, and learn our culture which we think they did really well.”