Replacing an all-state caliber player is a tough thing to do and Pike Liberal Arts Lady Patriots head coach Steven Kilcrease is not even going to try and do such a thing this year.

“No single person is going to pick up where Sara left off,” Kilcrease said. “We don’t have one of those, but what we do have is 17 girls on this team who all know they have to step up where Sara left off.”

Sara Sellers accounted for a lot of the scoring for the PLAS Lady Pats from the shooting guard position last year, but Kilcrease will turn to his low post players this year.

“We have three or four post players that will be as good or better than anyone we will face,” Kilcrease said. “Without a doubt our inside game will be our strength offensively.”

However, Kilcrease said the Lady Pats will not be lacking when those girls have to kick it out to the guards.

“We have some guards in Josie Griffin and Anna Saunders working at the point guard position who played some last year,” Kilcrease said. “And we have Rebecca Farrar and Kelly Cash at the guard positions.”

And on the other side of the ball Kilcrease said this year’s team should surpass last year’s bunch.

“We feel defensively we should be pretty good and we should be a lot better than we were last year,” he said.

The Lady Patriots did lose a major piece of their team from last year, but they did only lose one senior from a squad that finished the season with a winning record.

“Sara is going to be missed,” Kilcrease said. “But we have a lot coming back and we are still fairly young because we only have one senior this year in Mary Vance Ventress.”

The team has worked hard in the offseason to have another successful season.

“This is a hard working group and we had a lot of success in camp this summer,” Kilcrease said. “Hopefully that will carry over.”

The Lady Patriots have not had much time to slack off with Kilcrease being involved with football until last Friday and opening the season with region games.

But Kilcrease said these girls have had the correct guidance.

“I have to give a lot of credit to (assistant coach) Robert Hawkins because he has been out there practicing them for three and a half weeks while football has been going on and they look good,” he said.

The Lady Patriots open the season on the road in Montgomery against Taylor Road Dec. 1 beginning at 4 p.m. with the JV girls’ game.