Free State seniors Peyton Brown, left, and Hannah Walter have a laugh with some of their teammates while lining up for dribbling drills during basketball camp on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at Free State High School.

High school basketball coaches love taking advantage of the summer to get a head start on the winter season months ahead of time, as camps, leagues and practices allow players and teams to evolve and improve.

Imagine how Free State girls coach Bryan Duncan felt 12 months ago, when his star player, Madison Piper, and some of her teammates couldn’t even participate in team activities due to injuries.

“It was really hard to adjust and be able to get anything done in the summer to prepare,” Duncan recalled Thursday, during the fourth day of this summer’s camp.

Piper took time off a year ago to recover from some back issues, a knee injury sidelined Cameryn Thomas and Jaycie Bishop didn’t play much due to concussions.

“It’s really exciting this year with all of those girls back,” Duncan said, “in addition to Peyton Brown coming off an injury (knee), and actually having a very productive first two weeks.”

In 2014, the Firebirds lost all 12 of their summer-league games by 10 points or more, because of their injury issues and the fact 2015 graduate Sarah Coversup hadn’t yet joined the program.

“We never really knew what we had until November,” Duncan said of the group’s potential.

FSHS became one of the better teams in Class 6A. The Firebirds finished 17-5, and lost by four points in a sub-state final against Shawnee Mission West. With juniors Piper and Bishop, sophomore Thomas and seniors Brown and Hannah Walter serving as the new core, Free State blew past Olathe Northwest earlier this week in its summer-league opener.

Walter recalled how fruitless last June seemed in comparison, and said because Piper is Free State’s best player they couldn’t develop much flow in her absence.

“All of us have just been trying our hardest this summer to get better,” Walter added, “because once the season starts it has to be all learning plays and learning defense and stuff. Right now, it’s time for us to get better.”

With just two seniors, the Firebirds don’t have a ton of experience, but Piper said they have their minds set on getting to the 2016 state tournament.

“It’ll definitely be difficult, because we don’t have that presence inside to get those easy points,” the team’s leader said.

But Piper, who averaged 17 points a game as a sophomore, thinks Brown, who missed most of last season because of a knee injury, should give FSHS some strength inside.

“She’s more of that hustle player who gets all the boards,” Piper said.

Opposing defenses will game-plan to limit or take away Piper, so Duncan said this summer the Firebirds must develop supplemental scoring options, as well as depth.

“Madison arguably is the best scorer in the state,” the FSHS coach said, “but last year we had another excellent scorer in Coversup. You really want to have at least three. Our challenge is, I think we have really good team chemistry, people really understand their roles and defensively we’ll be very strong, but we do need to find ways to score other than just trying to give her the ball.”