The North Callaway girls are confident they’ll be able to score the basketball this season.

The Ladybirds lost five seniors from a team that won its most games (18) in seven years and averaged its most points (53.9) in 15 years but have some talent coming in.

Head coach Andrew Klein said that, among the smaller 13-girl roster this season, there are two seniors and three seniors on the roster for not much age experience. However, the freshmen and sophomores have shown some promise for what should be a good offensive year.

“We know how to score the basketball pretty well,” Klein said. “One of our strengths will be, as time goes on, will be confidence. I’ve seen a lot of confidence out of freshmen that you usually have to coach. They brought it in immediately.”

Klein said he and his assistants, Olivia Gowin and Mariah Peace, want to “bring the confidence out” so the girls can fare well on the court. Of course, returning three starters from last year helps a lot with that.

Natalie Shryock will be a senior after already having a record-breaking career with North Callaway, holding the 3-pointers made record in a game and season. Klein said the three-time all-Eastern Missouri Conference player Shryock will be “padding” the 3-pointers made in a career record and has a good shot to at least graduate as the second-highest scoring Ladybird.

“I don’t know that she’s going to get in all-time points, Samantha Heck was a heck of a player,” Klein said. “Natalie has a really good chance to be second in all-time points at North Callaway. It’s within striking distance for what she’s been averaging really year.”

Shryock is the primary threat from the perimeter and the Ladybirds have scoring threats at all levels. Lakyn Hartley is the other senior that is strong offensively and defensively and “hardly came out of the game last year.” Kymorie Myers is a junior post player that will play a key role in that area.

Klein said Shryock said records might not be the most important to her this season since she will be player with freshman sister Anna Shryock. The younger Shryock is among a group of talented freshmen that also includes Livia Hartley, Lakyn’s sister, and Sophie Olsson. Iceonna Tomlinson is a sophomore Klein said can’t be overlooked based on what she did with junior varsity a season ago.

“Anna Shryock will play both ways for us as a freshman, playing some JV and varsity for sure,” Klein said. “Livia Hartley will be playing a lot of varsity minutes for us since she’s a heck of a defender and ball handler, similar to her sister. Sophie Olsson is a heck of an athlete and has put it together in the first couple weeks of practice. Iceonna Tomlinson will definitely get some run on varsity too.”

While North Callaway had its most successful offensive season in a while, Klein said it was a different story on the defensive end. The 47.5 points allowed per game was a four-year high in a season that ended in the first round of districts after a 69-56 loss to Hermann.

“What we’ve been working on is our defense,” Klein said. “We gave up too many points last year.”

Klein said having a smaller and younger roster might have the initial impression of being a retooling season but believes these girls can accomplish more. He said he wants that in his second season as the head coach but knows the girls want that as well.

“It would be an awesome goal for us to shock some people,” Klein said. “Ultimately, it’s just playing the best basketball down the stretch. That’s exactly what any coach wants. The goal right now is to get out of that first round of districts.”