Northampton head girls basketball coach Jeff Jacksits and his team are happy to put last year behind them.

One glaring reason was their overall and uncharacteristic 8-7 record.

“It was a weird year,” said the veteran head coach. “It was hard to get into a rhythm with the COVID stoppages. There wasn’t a flow for us.

“But we battled through it, and we’re looking to get back to a sense of normalcy this year.”

One constant for them was their nucleus, which was intact for the past few seasons.

Morgan Sterner, who will be playing at the Philadelphia-area Chestnut Hill College this winter, became a 1,000-point scorer last year and was the Konkrete Kids’ lone graduating senior. Their season ended in a 55-40 loss to Nazareth in an East Penn Conference (EPC) semifinal.

This year, the Kids will bring back four seasoned starters in hopes of making a league and district run this winter.

Yet, Jacksits is tempering some high expectations.

“We should be all right,” he added. “We think we can be among the top-three, four or five teams in the league.”

The kids will bring back the senior backcourt of Taylor Kranzley and Kylie Gilliard along with forward Devyn Demchak and junior center Grace Lesko. Senior Nicole Yellin will be the fifth starter.

“Taylor will run the point for us again, and she is very experienced,” said Jacksits. “She has been through all of the situations. It’s great to have Gilliard and Demchak back, and they have done a lot of things for us. Those three are all great leaders for us.

“Lesko has taken a number of big steps over the past two years. I believe she can be one of the top players in the league.”

Jacksits believes his team can be one of his deeper teams in recent years.

Senior Julie Mertz, and juniors Maddie Hurst, Kadee Schrader, Kaylee Christman, and Sophie Steirer will round out their rotation.

“Over the past few years, we would go seven deep,” said Jacksits. “This year, we can go as deep as 10. We can give girls a breather here or there. We have tended to wear down against teams like Nazareth, Parkland and Easton in the fourth quarter, as those teams can run out a number of girls.”

The Kids opened the season against Coatesville in the Owen J. Roberts tournament, which has been staple in their schedule. From there, the Kids open their regular-season play against Parkland, Liberty, and Freedom.

They will be in the Pocono Mountain West tournament after Christmas that will feature Jim Thorpe and Holy Redeemer.