The Highland Huskies will be leaning on some different faces this season in girls’ basketball. As part of five total seniors that have be replaced off last year’s 14-7 squad, Highland will look to fill the void left by all-state graduate Sarah Burton, the 2024 Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Player of the Year who led the team in virtually every statistical category.

The Huskies do bring back one starter in Katie Herrig, who averaged nearly six points, four-and-a-half rebounds, two assists and two steals per game as a junior.

Fellow senior Olivia Edwards and junior Mackenzie Davis also saw plenty of playing time, as did sophomores Katelyn Thomann and Hailey Brun. Mix in new players like freshmen Kamryn Fink and Autumn Guseman, and head coach Jody Fink tells KCII Sports that a core group of players is being developed.

“We’ve got a lot of youth [in] our program here this year,” Fink says, “but we have a lot of experience from last year’s group with some of that youth. It’s been nice. We’ve gotten a lot of good stuff out of our practices and [we are] looking forward to getting the season going.”

Highland’s first game of the new girls’ basketball season is Friday night at Keota. You can hear the Huskies take on the Eagles as part of a doubleheader from the 4 Corners Shootout on the KCII Area Game of the Week. Coverage begins Friday at 5:30 p.m. exclusively streaming on KCIIradio.com.