Santa Fe Women’s Hoops Finally Start

The Santa Fe women’s basketball will start their season on Thursday, Jan. 21.

Unusual Start

Like most sports this year, the Santa Fe women’s basketball team did not start the season in a typical fashion. Head coach Chanda Stebbins said that the team has only had 14 days of practice just ahead of their first game. COVID-19 restrictions have halted the team from being able to start preparing for their season at their usual time.

Last season, the Saints played their first official game at the beginning of November 2019. Now, the first game will not be played until well into January 2021. Despite the roadblocks, Stebbins is still positive about this upcoming season. Though certainly unusual, she and her team are excited to finally get the season started.

A look at the Santa Fe Roster

Another issue that has plagued teams all year is the uncertainty of players available to play each game. According to Stebbins, this will also be the case for the Saints. She says that she’ll try to keep the team 14 or 15 players deep throughout the season, but this may fluctuate as circumstances change.

As for the roster, 10 of 16 players are sophomores. For Stebbins, this is a benefit. For her, it means that these players will be able to maintain a sense of normalcy throughout the season due to past experience.

Santa Fe’s season

Check out the latest addition to the gym rafters! pic.twitter.com/dD73TkeVSl

— Santa Fe Women's Basketball (@SFSaintswbk) November 25, 2020

This season, another thing that will be different for the Saints is their conference. Their conference, once called the Mid-Florida Conference, will now be dubbed the Central Conference. Besides the name change, the conference will also include a couple of new teams.

One team will include Eastern Florida State College. According to Stebbins, Eastern Florida will enter the season as conference-favorites and are set to put up a fight against the Saints’ dominance over the last four years. Stebbins thinks the Saints are up for the fight.