The positive character of this year’s club should help the Coupeville High School boys basketball team overcome the departure of some key components.

The Wolves lost their entire starting lineup to graduation, including two first-team, all-Olympic League selections, Hunter Smith, one of the most prolific scorers in school history, and Ethan Spark.

The strengths of this year’s team are its attitude, effort and “willingness to just plain get after it in practice,” according to coach Brad Sherman.

“We have a hard-working group of boys, which is so critical to everything we do,” he said. “This early in the season we are still evaluating, still learning a lot about ourselves, but, as a staff, we’ve seen a lot of good things so far.

“(We have a) great group of athletes, and ( I’m) really grateful for our coaching staff.”

Sherman said areas of needed improvement are patience on offense and handling pressure.

The Wolves ended last season (when they were 7-13 overall and 5-4 in conference play) playing “really good basketball,” Sherman said. “We would like to build on that.”

He has revamped the offense to take advantage of the skill set of this year’s group, noting it’s “a great fit.”

Among the goals this season, according to Sherman, are to get better every week and to give “all-out effort every time we hit the floor.”

He added that his team is focusing on setting the tone with its defensive intensity and that the staff is teaching the players “to take pride in that piece.”

Sherman’s young club includes only one senior and four returning lettermen: senior post Dane Lucero and juniors point guard Jered Brown, post Gavin Knoblich and wing Mason Grove.

Others expected to help out are junior Sean Toomey-Stout, who was injured last year, junior Ulrik Wells and freshman Hawthorne Wolfe.

The Wolves, who will play in the new North Sound Conference this year, open the season when Oak Harbor (3-17 last year) visits for a non-league game at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28.