The Van-Far girls will be looking to be better as the season progresses.

The Lady Indians are taking it game by game with their roster of eight girls – three seniors and five freshmen – this year. They won’t have everybody available right away, though, as they are waiting on senior McKenna Engh-Hoffman and freshman Khloe Wallace to return from injury.

Head coach Heather Minter said she believes there are games this season Van-Far can win to follow its 6-20 campaign a year ago. Most of the freshmen had a chance to play even more than the usual 5-6 player rotation Minter features during last week’s jamboree in Mexico as the Lady Indians were also without senior point guard Carmen Wilburn because of a FFA prior commitment.

“We need to talk more and look up more, but I feel like the kids competed and played hard with just five kids,” Minter said. “We know what we’ll need to work on, but we’ll get there.”

The roster when at full strength brings a good amount of leadership, Minter said, as Wilburn has been with her for years. Engh-Hoffman was a good secondary post option last season along with the graduated Mara Jensen, who was voted as a unanimous all-Eastern Missouri Conference player. Katelyn Sutton added some shooting last year.

“Carmen has started for me all four years so I’m looking for good things from her,” Minter said. “Sutton played quite a bit last year and started some. She struggled some, but I feel like she’s starting to get a little bit more confidence. McKenna is that post player we miss, and hopefully we get her back as quickly as we can.”

Minter said Engh-Hoffman is anticipated to be back from an ACL injury in January, and Wallace should be back but has to be cleared for a nerve issue. Having those two return should help the defense and provide more leadership to the freshmen group.

The freshmen will start unfamiliar to the varsity game but aren’t unfamiliar to each other, Minter said. Along with Wallace, Van-Far is adding Elliott Utterback, Mylee Keller, Kenya Jones and Chloe Zumwalt.

“Those kids have been playing together since they were in the first grade,” Minter said. “We’re going to take some lumps with them because they are playing against older kids, but they’re going to be a fun group to coach and watch them grow.”

Minter is aware there will be teams that are better than the Lady Indians so she asks that her group competes as hard as possible as they hopefully improve before the end of the season.

“We’re just going day by day and game by game,” Minter said. “We’re so young and then we’ve got the three upperclassmen. We want to send them out on a good note.”