Staff Photo by Jake Olson: (Left to right) Front Row: Kayla Mattson, Keira Benck, Addison Barrick, Josie Moeller. Back Row: Addison Nowicki, Londyn Bowers, Phoebe Madsen, Ava Donohue, Elizabeth Bennett, Taylor Boesch.

GRANADA – Granada Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther girls basketball head coach TJ Pytleski will be leaning on a large group of upperclassmen this upcoming winter season, bringing in eight seniors to manufacture another winning campaign for the Jaguars program.

GHEC/T/ML will be without two starters from last year’s front court in Madisen Lewis and Harley Geistfeld. Luckily for Pytleski, the rest of his 2024-2025 starting lineup stayed intact, with Keira Benck, Londyn Bowers, and Addison Nowicki bringing a plethora of backcourt experience to the Jaguars roster. Kayla Mattson is expected to take on a bigger role this season after playing heavy minutes for GHEC/T/ML last season off the bench.

Benck and Bowers finished last season on the All-Sentinel Girls Basketball team. The dynamic guard tandem both averaged 15 points and over three steals per game last winter.

“We have some shoes to fill, obviously,” Pytleski said. “But we have some kids that have been in this system for a while now, so I am looking forward to them stepping up now and taking over.”

One of the benefits of having so many seniors on his roster has been the smooth transitions in practices. Having a handful of girls in their third, fourth, and fifth years in the program has made every preseason practice easy for Pytleski and his coaching staff, as they lean on the experienced individuals who already know the ins and outs of how he likes to operate.

Pytleski wants his team to play with a controlled, up-tempo style, creating as many transition opportunities as possible while constantly applying pressure to opposing defenses, using the experienced guard play to their full strength.

Pytleski plans to run a motion offense when his team is in the half-court, emphasizing floor spacing and constant movement to put his scorers in the proper position to succeed.

“That’s what we are going to try to run more of this year, is that motion [offense],” Pytleski said. “We can get the kids moving more … If we can space the floor and give kids an opportunity to put them in the spots to play to their individual strengths. We’ve got some kids that can shoot from the outside. So if we can drive and kick it out to those kids, that would be great.”

Defensively, the Jaguars plan to use a mix of man-to-man and zone schemes, depending on the opponent, to leverage the strengths of their quick, athletic backcourt. While Pytleski used to play only man-to-man defense in his early coaching days, he has since adapted his philosophy to the personnel he works with each year.

“When I first started coaching, I was strictly man-to-man,” Pytleski said. “That’s kind of changed over the years, depending on the players that you have. We will mix in a little bit of both throughout the season, depending on our opponents and what we have to do to stop them.”