While there will be plenty of newness, there will also be plenty of familiarity for the Aberdeen Central girls’ basketball team this season.

The Golden Eagles will feature a new coach and nearly an entire new starting lineup. However, the new coach is former assistant Mikayla Arechigo who has coached nearly all of the players on this year’s squad in the past.

“What’s kind of neat about all the kids that I’m working with is I’ve worked with them at the lower level,” Arechigo said. “The only one that I haven’t really worked with is Taryn (Hettich), because she got moved up right away. So, the one with the most experience is actually probably the one that I have the least experience coaching.”

Hettich is the lone returning starter from last year’s state tournament team. However, there are others who are no strangers to the varsity.

Kiana Mounga, Karly Wellman and Camryn Bain all saw playing time a year ago. Kyra Griese is also expected to play a key role this season.

Arechigo said while coaches have their particular styles, they also have to coach to the skillsets of the players they are coaching.

“You can have your own style, and if you don’t have the kids to execute it, it’s not going to work out,” she said. “So, it’s a combination of figuring out what our kids are going to be able to do and what I’m going to be able to coach.”

That said, look for the Eagles to push the pace when they can this year to take advantage of their speed and quickness, especially being a bit undersized with injuries to post players to start the season.

“Our defense will have to be what makes our offense go. We have a lot of guards, but without that height, it’s kind of tough to do those things you’d like to in a more up-tempo game,” Arechigo said. “It’s just a matter of finding that balance between letting your transition offense create points for you while still having the discipline to force the defense to work and make the mistakes, and then take advantage of that on the offensive end.”

The Eagles, who open their season by hosting Rapid City Central on Friday and Rapid City Stevens on Saturday, have goals in mind for the upcoming campaign and they include getting back to the state tourney, where Central was seventh a year ago.

“We have goals in mind and the girls know what those goals are, and they have their own goals as well,” Arechigo said. “I think we all know where we would like to be at the end of the season, but nobody goes into the season hoping they don’t make the state tournament.”

While this will be Arechigo’s first season as a head coach, she comes from a family of coaches and said she has some of the best assistants in the state, some of whom were decorated college players.

Arechigo said that the Eagles have had a solid two weeks of practice as she and her players adapt to their new roles this season.

That learning process will play a key role in the squad’s success this year.

“We’re going to have to find that right blend of knowing our roles and executing what we need to,” Arechigo said. “Things that we have to get a lot better at is our passing, we’ve got to be a lot better at rebounding than we’ve been the first two weeks of practice, and then just getting more comfortable with the decisions we need to make with the new offensive and defensive changes.”