The girls basketball season is just around the corner, with teams first games coming this week. For the Cloquet girls squad, a team that made it to the section championship game, it’s a transformative year after losing five seniors.

“We bring in the experience of being in the section finals, so we’re going to take what we know, start at that level, and hopefully build off of it,” said head coach Heather Young. “Also, just learning and realizing what are our strengths and how do we utilize those the best we can during game situations.”

“There’s obviously a lot of roles that we need to focus on filling,” said Sarah Turner, a senior guard. “For the most part, I think we can do it. We lost a lot of height and strength, but we were in the weight room all season lifting, and with confidence. We think we’ll be ok. We’ll be good.”

Cloquet tips off on Thursday against Proctor at home at 7:15 p.m.