“After a great season for girls soccer at Oak Harbor, Molly Bull and Jaime Armstrong are surely hoping that the magic that surrounded them on the field will carry over to the gymnasium when they take to the hardwood in the coming weeks. Last season was a pretty good season overall, according to Oak Harbor girls coach Dwight Lundstrom. The team, which posted a 9-11 record, improved greatly from the prior year. There were some games that I thought we should have had down the stretch, said Lundstrom. But overall it was a good season for our team because the year prior we were 4-16, so it was a big improvement. Although the Wildcats graduated six seniors from last season they are still in good shape, according to Lundstrom, because they will return three starters.The combination of some new blood, the three returning starters and a good work ethic will equal a winning season, Lundstrom hopes.But with the loss of last year’s players, the team will lose some size against its competition. Players like Kim Gabler (graduated) and Constance Burnette (moved) added height to the Wildcat attack.Defensively we press quite a bit, said Lundstrom. As far as changing, we are going to increase our amount of pressing. We are going to do that a lot more because we have a lot of smaller kids.Lundstrom isn’t worried about the loss in height because he is sure that it can be made up in the quickness that the team possesses.We are going to use our quickness, which tends to be an asset, said Lundstrom. We are going to push to try to keep the game a full court game and not have teams take us half court.One difficult area for the team to compensate for as far as the loss of height is concerned is in the area of rebounding the basketball for second-chance shots, or to spark quick fast breaks.Although this past summer we had rebounded quite better than I had expected, we pretty much do it by just hustling after the ball, said Lundstrom. If we can develop a real attitude of going to the bucket and chasing down everything, I think we will have a good chance of doing well.Two of the returning players for the squad, Armstrong and Bull, are also going to have to fill leadership rolls.Both of them have leadership styles of leading by example, said Lundstrom. Molly is just a pure hustle player and Jaime just brings a lot of different skills to our team. She is quick, goes to the bucket well, and her anticipation on defense is really helpful to us. We have some junior leadership from Valerie Hartman, too, who is our point guard and she leads well on the floor, he said.Lundstrom is focusing in on league games and feels that the other teams will be great challenges for the girls, but not above their capabilities as far as earning wins.The league was kind of rebuilt last year, but Snohomish is always really tough and Cascade is going to be big. Marysville lost a few of their key players. We always enjoy playing Sehome and they’re going to be tough. Those are where we need to get the wins, said Lundstrom. Overall I think we can fit right in there and be competitive.While some teams may have their problems with getting in shape and being ready for the rigors of the season, the WIldcats are in tip-top shape, according to their coach.My soccer players are certainly in shape and a good number of my juniors played basketball on club teams, so they have been playing basketball and they’re ready to roll, said Lundstrom. Along with being physically fit for the season Lundstrom is happy with the off-season work ethic that the girls displayed.Summer ball we had a pretty good showing, said Lundstrom. I didn’t get to see as many of my freshman as I would have liked, but we are always trying to encourage them to come play basketball. We had a good showing and we played competitively and I think we came out about .500 over the summer. The coach really wants to emphasize playing together and working as a group. I really want them to learn about a ‘team’ effort and how to play as a team, said Lundstrom. I want them to learn the commitment that you give to a team, the commitment that you give to a program to make it successful and the ability to leave everything that they have on the court. “