The LBW Saints’ Men and Women basketball teams are looking to young players to step up this season and improve on last year.

 

The Men’s team is coming off a league championship and returns Player of the Year, Troy Manassa, who Saint’s head coach Ricky Knight said he worked hard this summer to get better than last year.

 

Coach Ricky Knight is entering his 28th season as coach of the Saints.

 

“We have a new team this year with seven freshman coming in, and how good we are is going to how well this year’s team learns to play together,” said Knight.

 

The Saints will begin the season Nov. 7 in Niceville where they will face last year’s No. 1 team in the nation, the Northwest Florida St Raiders.

 

“Our first four games are against some of the top teams,” said Knight.

 

The Saints first home action will be Nov. 11 against the Southern Union Bison, who knocked the Saints out of the final 8 in the state tournament. Then on Nov. 13 they will host the Shelton State Buccaneers, who were finish No.2 in the state. The women’s team begins at 5:30 and the men’s team will take the court at 7:30 for both contests.

 

“We should have a good year with both the men’s and women’s team as long as they can learn to work together,” said Knight.

 

This year’s women’s team will be comprised of mainly freshman this season and Knight said they would have grow up fast.

 

“We have a lot of freshman on this year’s women’s team about 90 percent of the team are freshman, so we will see how fast they grow up and learn to play together,” said Knight. “I hope we can shoot the ball better than last year, and both teams have to play better on the defense side of the floor.”