While the Salisbury girls basketball team finished the 2024-25 basketball season with an 8-13 record, one doesn’t have to look hard to find positives from the season.

The team started with a 1-5 record and was 3-12 after its first 15 games.

At that point, the players could have just hung their heads and played out the string of games to finish the season. Instead, they looked to turn things around to give themselves some confidence and pride that they can bring into next season.

A 5-1 finish to the season raised some eyebrows as a young team started to learn how to win games.

More good news is that the team does not suffer a lot of losses from graduation. The Falcons were young this past season with just one senior, Maya Sueliman, on their roster. Sueliman’s experience with the team was key for first-year head coach Jason Laky.

“What I will miss most about her,” said Lakey, “ is that she was the person that kept things together and was the momma bear of the team. She was so easy to coach and always willing to do what she could to be on the court. It was a pleasure having her be a part of this rebuilding process. I wish her the best with her continuing education after high school.”

With a young roster and a new coach, this past season was a learning experience for the program. When Laky arrived he found a bunch of girls who simply lacked some stability and were eager to get better. That gave Laky a place to start and he was able to dive right in.

“I think the girls wanted to be coached and we put a premium on being accountable in everything we did as a team,” he said. “Our team was pretty young in general, having four freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors. As the season progressed, we continued trying to challenge our girls to go as hard as they could in every game, limit mistakes, and gain some valuable experience. I think that we competed in all of our games, and I am sure opened some eyes of other coaches that we indeed are moving the program in the right direction.”

With just one senior, Laky was able to give younger players a lot of time on the court as varsity players and that experience was shown late in the season. It’s going to show even more next winter.

Laky hopes to possibly have the team together for some summer games and is looking for other ways to continue the development of his players. It’s worth noting that the JV team lost the opening game of the season and then ran through the rest of the schedule without a loss which will give those players confidence as some of them look to make the jump to varsity.

“Our young girls, especially our freshmen, gained a huge amount of experience, which will be invaluable for next season,” Laky said. “They really did compete and perform well against some more seasoned teams that have more experience. My hope is that with all of the experience they have gained this past season it will carry over to next season.

“Our Sophomores, led by Izabella Gonzales and Tessa Kemmerer, also played a pivotal part of our growth. I hope that they both continue to work on their skills over the summer and I would expect them to come back stronger for next season. Juniors Kendra Morgan and Isabella Nimeh have been three year starters on this team. “

The attitude of the players stayed strong and the late season winning spree and the ability to stick close in some earlier games, gives the returning players, especially older players like Morgan and Nimeh, something to build on and look forward to.

“I think they felt that they now have a chance to be put in a better position of competing and being in games than in the past,” said Laky. “They understood that it would take a lot of hard work, time and I think are willing to put the work in to make this a success.”

Next season will be one to watch for girls basketball at Salisbury as Laky builds on the steps that the team took over the season and will take throughout the summer. For a program that has seen some down times, happy days could be right around the corner.