It has been a rough couple of weeks for Lawrence High girls basketball coach Kristin Mallory as she prepares her team for the upcoming season.

She has had to deal with the absence of three starters from practice – two due to injury and one on vacation – as she tries to get her team ready for its season opener next week.

One of the missing, Kayla Nolte, is gone for the season after an MRI earlier this week revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a knee.

Drew Huff, who is entering her third season as the team’s starting point guard, tore her ACL over the summer and has yet to be cleared to play. The best-case scenario has her returning to the team in late December.

A third starter, Sydney Wilson, has been vacationing in Maui and has missed over a week of practices.

“Right now, I’m basically running practices without three kids that would start for me,” Mallory said.

After losing a heartbreaker to Olathe East in the Class 6A sub-state tournament last year, Mallory and her squad can’t wait to get back on the court. The Lions seemed ticketed for state when they led by 10 points heading into the fourth quarter, but let Olathe East come back to win, 57-55.

“That loss is going to drive them all season long, knowing that we were that close to accomplishing some things that had been goals for us all season, and we let it slip away,” Mallory said.

Free State coach Bryan Duncan is likewise excited about his team’s chances this season. After losing only one key player from last year’s squad, Duncan brings back four starters and a strong junior class that have him thinking big.

“We’re a deep team,” Duncan said. “We feel right now that we have 10 or 11 girls who can play on the varsity level.”

Free State will play a four-out, one-in offense this season, going with three guards and two forwards. The Firebirds will rely heavily on the perimeter play of senior guards Tricia Dunham and Sarah Heider. Both played extensive minutes last season and will bring needed experience to the backcourt.

The main contributor for Duncan and his team will be senior Banaka Okwuone. She led the league in rebounding each of the past two seasons and again will be counted on to control the glass for Free State. Duncan also expects her to contribute on the offensive end.

“We will definitely expect her to score some this year,” Duncan said. “She will give us a strong inside presence, but she can also get out and run the floor, and we’re hoping to get a lot of buckets out of her in transition.”

The winter at Veritas Christian will be a little different than normal this year. For the first time in school history, the school will field a varsity girls basketball team.

The Eagles finished 9-13 at the JV level last season under coach Kevin Shelton, who has moved up with the team as the varsity coach. Veritas only lost one senior to graduation last year and returns almost its entire team.

Grace Barclay, the lone senior, and sophomores Kristie Tiegreen and Ami Williams will be counted on to lead the team, Shelton said.

“They have played together for a couple of years,” Shelton said. “They have a lot of heart and a lot of desire, and I think that they are going to help the team surprise a lot of people this year.”

When Nick Taylor took over as Seabury Academy’s coach before last season, he inherited a team that only won one game the previous year. He increased that total by eight games, going 9-10 in his first season at the helm.

Taylor will have to try to match that success this year without two key seniors.

“I lost three seniors from last year’s team, and two of them accounted for about 80 percent of our scoring,” Taylor said.

Taylor is counting on a strong junior class to help fill the void. Molly Thurman and Lane Fritzell, both juniors, will play significant minutes at the forward position. Jen Crawford, a third junior, will fill a variety of roles, Taylor said.

Laura Hoffmann, one of two seniors, will return as the team’s starting point guard.

“She can handle the ball pretty well,” Taylor said. “She does turn the ball over every once in a while, though, and I have to take her back and tell her to stay in control, but overall, she’s a great athlete.”