Courtesy Photo/CM Photography The 2019 Alpena High School girls basketball team includes from right to left, back row: assistant coach Doug Bebout; head coach Erin Andrews, Jade Schultz, Jenna Leeck, Alayna Trelfa, Edie Zann and assistant coach Laura Dubey; front: Macy Dickinson, Taylor Baker, Allison Urlaub, Elyse Clarke, Anna Young, Allie DeRocher and Alexis Jones.

The Alpena High girls basketball team has a lot of ingredients to work with this year: team speed, height, experience and leadership.

If the Wildcats can mesh all those elements together successfully, they should put themselves in position for a winning season and taking another step forward as a program.

The Wildcats have gotten off to a solid 2-0 start this season.

“I think we’re a lot more experienced this year. This is the first time since my first year that I’m actually starting three seniors and my first couple players off the bench this year are sophomores,” Alpena coach Erin Andrews said. “I think having some of the older kids and some of the younger kids out on the floor and being strong will be helpful.”

As Andrews embarks on her third year leading the Wildcats, she’ll do so with a talented mix of players who make up quite possibly one of the tallest groups Alpena has had in several years. Of the 11 players on the Wildcats’ roster, only two are under 5-foot-7 and five are 5-foot-10 or higher. This should give Andrews plenty of options for crafting lineups and rotations as she looks to take advantage of Alpena’s height and athleticism.

“Some of it’s young, but there’s a lot of height. Even some of the guards are pretty tall. I haven’t had that in the past, so I think that’s helpful being able to spread everybody out,” Andrews said. “We’re working on some new offenses to get everybody moving.”

Alpena’s roster has five returners from last season’s team, including 5-foot-10 senior Jade Schultz. A first team all-Big North Conference selection last season, Schultz is in her third year as a varsity starter and is one of the Wildcats’ captains. Andrews praised Schultz for her leadership and she’s looking for her captain to have a solid follow-up to her junior season where she averaged 10 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

“She’s one of the team captains this year and my expectation is for her to step out on the floor and lead,” Andrews said. “She’s the leader on the team in practice, she’s the leader in the locker room and I need her to be the leader out on the court as well.”

One player who could be primed for a breakout season is Allie DeRocher. The 5-foot-9 junior showed flashes of potential last year before losing a big chunk of her season due to injury. She got off to a good start in the season opener with a 14-point effort in a win over Alcona and followed up with 15 points in Tuesday’s win over Cheboygan.

Andrews believes DeRocher will be more than capable of being a consistent scorer and distributor for the Wildcats over the course of the season.

“Her being on the bench last year, she learned a lot listening to (assistant) coach (Laura) Dubey and myself. Her just seeing some things develop, I think that helps her see the floor a lot more,” Andrews said of DeRocher. “We’ve got some bigger post players this year, which allows her to play more guard and get some looks at the basket.”

Alpena’s other veterans include senior Anna Young, senior guard Macy Dickinson and senior Taylor Baker. Newcomers include 6-foot junior Elyse Clark, junior Alexis Jones, sophomore Jenna Leeck, sophomore Alayna Trelfa, sophomore Allison Urlaub and senior Edie Zann who, at 6-foot-1, is Alpena’s tallest player and should be an athletic presence for the Wildcats in the front court.

The Wildcats went 11-10 last season with a 5-5 record in Big North Conference play. With the talent they have, they’re hoping to challenge the conference’s upper echelon, which includes Cadillac, last year’s conference champion.

“I think Cadillac’s still the team to challenge. They were really good last year and I think they’re returning everybody as far as key players,” Andrews said.

Another challenge for the Wildcats will be finishing out close games this year. Alpena stuck right with the Big North’s best last season, but four of their five conference losses came by 10 points or less. Overall, Alpena dropped six contests by 10 points or less, but Andrews believes the Wildcats are more experienced and better equipped to finish out games this season.

“I’ve had all these kids in the program for at least three years since they started at the junior high learning the same stuff,” Andrews said. “Now we’re just fine tuning some things.”