WAYNE, Neb. -- After making their first district final since 2016, Wayne Girls’ Basketball Head Coach Aaron Carlson said the team wants to see growth from last year’s run to the final.

“We’re really excited to build off of the things we accomplished last season. I feel like things are heading the right way for our program. We talked the other day about [it], as our program continues to rise so do our expectations and standards,” Carlson said.

After graduating Brooklyn Kruse who amassed over 1,400 points and 700 rebounds in her career last year, Carlson said the team will adjust and adapt into an up-tempo style of play.

“I think our girls are kind of buying into a different style of play,” Carlson said. “I think we’re going to be able to push the ball a little bit more. Really, we have some depth this year which we’re excited to use.”

One of the key players for the Blue Devils will be the second leading scorer from last year’s team Frantzdie Barner.

The senior said with this year, the first few games of the season will see a lot of lineups and building the chemistry between the players.

“Getting more comfortable with each other. Really like the first few [games. It’s] like a warm-up like you said. Getting to know each other, getting to know each other’s strength and how well you play with each other.”

Barner said aggression on the offensive and defensive side is going to be a big emphasis as the season goes on.

“This year we have a smaller line-up,” Barner said. “We’ve been working on being more aggressive and being mostly all over the place. We’ve been doing a lot of running.”

Carlson said the first few games of the season will help the team understand mistakes are part of the game and will look to better themselves as the year goes on.

“Buying into the process that mistakes are okay. We’ve got to learn from them. We got to build from them that way we can play our best basketball towards the end of the year.”

The Blue Devils will be in action on Friday night against Battle Creek and on Saturday against Ponca for the start of the 2023-24 season.

NCN's broadcast for the Ponca-Wayne girls and boys double-header will begin on Saturday at 5:05 p.m.