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It's not exactly a secret what happened on the court for the Marshalltown girls basketball team last season.
For the first time in program history, the Bobcats didn't celebrate a single victory, going 0-22 in the 2016-17 campaign. The numbers didn't look great either, as they finished with 625 total turnovers -- the second worst mark in the state, regardless of class -- and only managed to lose by less than double digits once.
That's all in the past for the MHS girls, however, and this season is a brand new chance for the team to prove on the court that they improved from such a forgettable year.
Bobcats head coach Stacy O'Hare said this newest iteration of the Marshalltown girls will feature some familiar faces and a few new contributors.
"We don't have a lot of kids back but the kids that are back are kids that were out on the court the majority of the game," O'Hare said. "They know what last year was about and they know what they need to do this year."
The three major returners for the Bobcats are sophomores Madi Finch and Erica Johnson and junior Alyvia Chadderdon. Finch and Johnson played in every game their freshman year, while Chadderdon appeared in 19 of 22 games in her sophomore campaign.
O'Hare said the plan wasn't to immediately have those young athletes tossed into the fire, but the experience they gained should hopefully make them better heading into this season.
"Last year I feel like they were thrown into this position that maybe they weren't quite ready for," she said. "They were hoping to be more like role players and I think they got over that in a hurry, but this year they are really going to have to step up and be the kids we have to look to every single night and I think they are ready for that. They have one year under their belt and they feel confident about doing that."
Finch specifically evolved into her role the quickest last season, finishing the year as the leading Bobcat scorer at 4.3 points per game. Finch had the highest field-goal percentage (26.8 percent) and led in rebounds per game (5.7). O'Hare said contributing on the varsity level is something Finch is familiar with though she's just a sophomore, considering she's been playing on varsity for MHS since the summer of her eighth-grade year.
"She's used to playing varsity in softball and volleyball so she's no stranger to the varsity spot," O'Hare said of her top returner. "I think she has more confidence this year, just even in practice you can see she feels better about the way she's shooting the ball and she's working a lot harder."
Johnson led the way in steals last season with 23, and as the season went on she saw her role expand more and more. O'Hare said Johnson's role will expand even more this season, as she will be in charge of running the offense as point guard.
"Aspen (Chadderdon) did it a lot last year and we kind of worked Erica into that spot towards the end of last season, but as a freshman you hate to throw them out there at the point because that's a hard spot," O'Hare said. "She's still a sophomore, she's still going to be young and playing against the best kids in the state of Iowa, so it will be a challenge for her but I think the point is her spot and she is looking forward to doing it."
O'Hare said Alyvia, Aspen's sister, will also help run the offense when needed. All three of the girls will be huge for bringing the other players on the court up to speed, and O'Hare said so far they've exceeded her expectations on that end.
"I think they are all excited to step up and be like 'OK, we are the ones,'" she said. "They are helping out the other kids that we are looking for as far as our bench kids, they have been great these couple weeks just helping each other out and push and hopefully make it challenging in practice to improve enough so that we can maybe get some wins."
In the sports world, success is generally judged solely off wins and losses, but for a team that didn't experience any wins last season, it can be hard to lace up the shoes and continue going out and competing.
O'Hare said that has been an issue at times with the team, which is why she tries to define success in different ways.
"They want to be able to see the success and see the improvement and you don't see it in the wins and loss column," O'Hare said. "They don't see it in the wins so they think they didn't improve, but they did. From the start to the end of last year our kids improved so much, it's just the level of competition is just so high.
"You hope they didn't look at last year and go 'ugh, this is it.' They were freshmen, they were young, they were inexperienced but they went out there and they always played hard and got better and this year they will get better and stronger and keep improving so by the time they are seniors they should be outstanding players."
As for how the team will determine success on the court this season, O'Hare said they will take time together and list out clear and concise aspirations they would like to strive for and build off reaching those throughout the year.
"We will set personal goals, we'll set team goals, things that we just want to improve on. We led the state in turnovers last year, that's gotta be something we have to improve on," O'Hare said. "We have to put up more points, obviously that means we have to take more shot attempts. Last year I thought early on we didn't shoot the ball hardly at all, so just those little things and hopefully the kids can see the improvements as the year goes on with just those things.
"Setting goals, meeting those goals and just getting better, that to me is success for our kids."