The Andalusia Lady Bulldogs basketball team has been waiting since the summer to get back on the court for another season of play.

First-year head coach Bennie Shellhouse said he thinks the team will be good enough to be a force this year.

“I think we’re going to be competitive this year,” Shellhouse said. “We’ve got a lot of seniors back and a lot of talented freshmen. We’ve got five seniors back this year.”

Shellhouse said the team, in order to be successful, can not let the “small” things get to them.

“We’ve got to be mentally tough,” he said. “We didn’t shoot real well at the free throw line last year. We hope to improve on that. We can’t let the small things hurt us like calls from the officials, lapses on the defensive side and turnovers.

“We are also looking to be a little more aggressive on the offensive end and scoring,” he said. “I think we’re pretty tough on defense. We’re going to be a pressing team with a lot of full court stuff.”

Shellhouse said the games that will determine the season will start at the beginning.

“I think the Enterprise game right here at the beginning of the year is a critical game for us,” Shellhouse said. “They are a 6A school. That’ll be a good guiding point of where we’ll be at in regards to the tougher competition.”

Shellhouse said he will determine who starts for the team by how much effort they put in at practice.

“I have 15 girls and probably every game we’ll have at least 10 girls playing that have the experience,” he said.