The Carlisle High School girls basketball team is shaping up for a great season. Both the coach and the players have high expectations for the season and have a hope to reach outside of their comfort zones to do what has not been done in many years.

This will be Coach Gabrielle Guynan’s second season coaching for Carlisle. She came to the team knowing that in previous years the girls team had a record of only winning one game per season.

Guynan said that even though the team did not win as many games as hoped, she thought last year’s season was successful because “they [are] getting better every day and that was a big step for the program.”

Guynan has high hopes for this season and said that she is expecting more wins as long as the team “builds the confidence of being able to win.”

The coach and the players are well aware that they face huge obstacles in the upcoming season and hope to build their mental edge and beat the odds.

The team’s theme for the year is getting outside their own comfort zones and doing things on and off the court that will improve their abilities even if it is not what they are used to doing. Guynan hopes that this will help them grow as players, but more importantly, as a team.

All the seniors of the girls basketball team feel that this year especially their team is closer than ever.

“We all connect better this year, to each other and to the coach,” said senior Sydney Purcell.

The team hopes that these connections will allow them to compete like never before. While all the seniors agree that making it to district playoffs would be a great way to end their senior season, their main hope is that they can compete with big schools such as Cumberland Valley and Central Dauphin East.

Guynan is excited to once again have her starting five together. She is expecting big things from sophomore Marlisle Newson.

Newson herself is really looking forward to this season and hopes to be a leader on the team. As a young player she sees the importance of motivating both the varsity and junior varsity team. Newson said that her goals for this season are to “be the best scorer I can be and push myself out of my comfort zone.”

Guynan predicts that this season will be exciting for fans and is ready to take on some of the team’s biggest competitors.