Chris Deutsch looked around the gym on the first day of practice and realized he had just six girls there. The rest of his players were still on the soccer field and would be absent until their team became state champions on Nov. 16.

Soon after that he got the soccer players back, they had shifted gears and were ready to play some basketball.

For Deutsch, the fact that a number of his players became state champions is a plus.

“Last season we were putting in a new offense, so it would have been a little more difficult, but you can’t teach the lessons they get from making a run like that,” said Deutsch. “They learned a lot from their season, and they can be very proud of that for the rest of their lives, and they can also apply some of those lessons on the basketball court.”

This year’s team is still relatively young and features just three seniors – Brook Balliet, Paige Bissell, and Cara Thomas – but he also has seven juniors, many of whom have logged quality minutes with the team.

Late last season, Thomas became the first junior to surpass the 1,000-point mark, scoring 438 points in her junior season to put her at 1,012 coming into this season. This season she makes a run at former teammate Paige Sevrain’s all-time scoring mark of 1,258.

Ironically, it was Thomas who got the assist on both Sevrain’s 1,000th point and on her 1,247th point that made her the all-time scoring leader. If Thomas repeats her numbers from last season, she would be at 1,450 career points, just off the school record of 1,451 points scored by Steve Showers, who graduated in 2,001.

“She has been just unbelievable,” said Deutsch. “I’m always impressed with the hard work that she puts in and how she helps other players to get better. She’s not the type to be very vocal, but she leads the team by showing other players how to conduct themselves.”

Joining Thomas on the offensive attack is Balliet, who has been a constant scoring option for Northwestern throughout her career. Emma Freeman hit 52 three-pointers last season to give the offense an outside threat and Olivia Reinhart took over Sevrain’s role as a threat down low for Deutsch.

Senior Paige Bissell, who scored Northwestern’s two goals in a 2-1 win in double overtime in the state soccer championship, did not play last season, but has returned for her senior season.

With all five starters – Balliet, Freeman, Reinhart, Thomas, and Hannah Gober – returning, there is plenty of experience to rely on. The development of other players and the addition of some young players to the roster has Deutsch thinking about just how deep his team is.

“I think we’re pretty well ahead of where we were a year ago at this time,” said Deutsch. “We were putting in a new offense and teaching that and we’ll have the same offense this season, so the girls are more used to it. We could go as deep as playing eight or 10 players on some nights because we have that much depth on this team and we didn’t have that much last season.”

Over his tenure at Northwestern, Deutsch has had a number of sisters that have been on the court for him, and he adds another family this season.

Natalie Conner, a freshman, is the younger sister of Mallory Conner, who may see an expanded role this season. The younger Conner was impressive in camp the past couple of weeks and will also see some time on the court for Deutsch.

The schedule has Northwestern opening Friday and Saturday in the Hamburg Tipoff Tournament and then starting league play on Dec. 3 against rival Northern Lehigh.

The league added two teams since last season in Lehighton and Jim Thorpe, which will push the Colonial League playoffs from six teams to eight, eliminating the first round bye for the top two teams.

“I don’t think that’s a big thing to not have that bye,” said Deutsch. “I would just as soon keep playing. Of course, if you’re banged up or something the rest can help you, but I like to keep the girls in that rhythm that they get used to.

“I think Northern Lehigh will be a tough game for us in the league opener, Notre Dame Green Pond is a tough squad, Bangor is always good. It’s going to be a lot of parity in the Colonial League and I think those seven and eight seeds may be very tough games.”