Most teams enter a new season talking about winning conference titles, the 2014-15 Cotter girls basketball team believes they can turn that talk into hardware.

The goals for the team are, “to win the conference championship and be a major threat to win the section championship,” says head coach Pat Bowlin.

It all starts with rebounding and shooting, two things Bowlin knows will be key to improving on a 15 win season.

Key contributors for the Ramblers this year are the three returning starters including all conference sophomore Gabby Bowlin, senior guard Kelly Vaselaar,   and junior forward Mikala Nelton. Vaselaar was all conference honorable mention last year.

Seniors Cora Arnold, Leah Koll, and Kaylin Zukowski, and juniors Kirsten Weifenbach, and Beth Parlin will compete for the fifth starting position and be key contributors off the bench. It will be interesting to see how the coaches decide to fill the fifth starting spot on offense.

One of the keys to success this season will be the Ramblers depth. “Jane Koll, Morgan Palubicki, Renee Ramsden and Josie Huelskamp all have great potential to be important bench players,” stated  Coach Bowlin.

The main concern this year will be shooting percentage and rebounding, two things that are not easily improved

“Last year we were outrebounded too often and our field goal and free throw percentage cost us several games,” Bowlin pointed out, “In order to go from 15 to 20 wins this season all of those areas must improve.”

The girls open the home portion of their schedule Friday, December 5, against LaCrosse Aquinas at 7:30 pm.  Bowlin is looking to establish a strong home court advantage, saying, “I would like to encourage the student body to get behind our girls team this year. I strongly believe that with a strong home crowd supporting us that we can pull of some big upsets at home and win a conference title.”