The Greeley West girls basketball team is full of new faces that are looking forward to the 2017-18 season. They are looking to have the best season they’ve had in the past few years because of an upgrade in talent.

One of the biggest ways this year’s Spartans will be different than those of the past few years is their team speed. West still doesn’t have a lot of height, but coach Jen Gudhal is encouraged by the quickness the girls can get up and down the court.

Another big change for the Spartans will be their team defense. In years past, West was stuck playing a half-court game because players were unable to keep up with the athletes at some of the bigger schools. This will not be a problem this year.

Gudhal, who is in her fourth season as varsity coach, stated, “With the group of kids we have at all levels, we’ll be able to press. We haven’t been able to do that the past few years but with the more depth we have this year we will be able to.

Gudhal hopes that being able to press leads to big things on offense as well. “With the press, hope to be able to get easy steals that will lead to easy baskets,” Gudhal said.

The team kicks off its season against Alliance on November 30 when the Spartans travel to Scottsbluff, Nebraska for a tournament.