Coach Ann Callis, left, is fielding a very young varsity and junior varsity basketball team this season. H.M. King High School’s girls basketball coach Ann Callis has just over a handful of players returning from last season’s varsity team.

“From last year’s varsity we have six returning players,” Callis said. “We have a low number right now, 24 girls, out for the program so we are only going to field a varsity and junior varsity team. In the past we started with three and eventually ended up with two, so this season we are going to start out with two solid teams.”

Callis is altering her blueprint this season, implementing a style that better suits her team.

“Yes, I found a better offense that is going to fit our personnel,” Callis said. “On defense, we are going to try out using man to man. We have always been able to play a solid zone defense but we’re trying some more man to man this year.”

The Lady Brahmas will duke it out with some stiff competition in District 31-4A this season.

“This district, I think, is one of the toughest in the state,” Callis said. “We have our leaders in Alice and Tuloso-Midway, Calallen and then you throw in Flour Bluff and all of the Laredo teams. They are all tough teams who come out to compete every single night and that is what makes this district so tough.”

H.M. King’s greenhorns will get their experience during the upcoming campaign the good old fashioned way; on the court.

“My process of acclimation is throwing them right in there,” Callis said. “We do not have the luxury of bringing them into the varsity level at a slow pace. We’re just going to throw them right in there, they’ll learn from the beginning and get better through the year; it may be a little bit shaky to begin with.”

Callis enters her third year as the Lady Bulls head honcho this season. Two years of sideline experience have taught her plenty.

“I know where my personnel is better and how to match that up, that was the big difference from my first and second year,” Callis said. “Compared to the first year coming in with a ‘this is what I’m going to run and this is how we are going to do it’ approach, I have learned to look at who I have and what works better for them. So it may not be the offense that I want to run but it may be the one my players can run better.”