As the Lindbergh High School boys’ varsity basketball team prepares to open the 2013-2014 season in the Hillsboro Tournament next week, the Flyers are optimistic and believe depth is going to be the biggest key to success in the new campaign.

Even though the Flyers graduated several players last year and only have one returning starter, head coach Jason Wolfard believes the new generation of seniors and underclassmen is the perfect mix for a quality team.

“We’ll be better than we have in the last couple of years,” Wolfard told the Call. “We are going to be able to do some different things we have been based on players we got returning this year.

“We’ll still be pretty young, I think. We only have five seniors. One of those started last year. So we graduated a lot last year, but I think we’ll be better. There’s an opportunity to be very deep, I believe, and I’ve been pretty pleased in practice up until this point.”

Jordan Watt is the lone returning starter from the 2012-2013 squad, and the Flyers will look for him to assume a leadership role.

Point guard Steven Washington also is expected to be a significant contributor this season.

The four other seniors who are expected to have a good year are Jordan Desnoyer, Doug Stubbs, Chris Mills and Henry Patterson.

“Those guys are looking to have a better senior year and find different ways to contribute,” Wolfard said of his senior class.

As far as the depth goes, the coach said the offense will be evenly distributed throughout the team all season.

“It could be any night, anyone could step up. That’s kind of the way this team is made up,” Wolfard said. “There’s no one guy that we’re going to lay on and rely on to get our points. I think we should be pretty evenly distributed, and I think that’s a big strength of our team.”

The Flyers will have to overcome a couple of hurdles — size and experience — this season, but they have faced the same challenges in past seasons.

“We know we are going to be undersized in a lot of games,” Wolfard said. “We have to figure out ways to battle that, but I think through our athleticism and depth that we can really get the ball up and down on both ends of the floor …

“I think the other weakness right now for us is just experience, just learning the differences, especially in these young guys the differences between JV basketball and varsity basketball. But they picked up a little this summer and … as they start to learn more, I think we’ll get better.”

Following the Hillsboro Tournament, the Flyers open their regular season Saturday, Dec. 21, against Owensville at Sullivan.