Getting more than twice as many players to come out than the year before seemed a victory in itself.

Then the Trinity Prep girls basketball team traveled to Sebastopol and won last Tuesday’s season opener, 33-15, over Summerfield Waldorf.

Despite the promising start, Crusaders coach John Streett insists his 11-player squad — which features six freshmen, three sophomores, one junior and one senior — is still a work in progress.

“This is the first year this team has played together,” he said. “There’s a lot of learning going on individually. I’m very happy they were able to play well. I’m very pleased with their progress.”

Streett said the team has no players taller than 5-foot-6, but has good overall quickness.

After coaching the Trinity Prep boys the last four years, including his son and four-year starter Dan Streett, the coach moved over to the girls helm to coach the youngest of his four children, freshman guard Marisa Streett. Former girls coach Sal Alvarez, who had just five girls on last year’s winless team, is now coaching the Trinity boys.

Marisa Streett, who is just a freshman but has played organized basketball since she was 5, outscored Tuesday’s opponent all by herself with 16 points. The team’s lone senior, Jessica Frielander, added nine points.

“Some of our scoring was in the halfcourt, some off fullcourt pressure,” John Streett said, adding that his tallest players are about 5-foot-6. “We have good team speed.”

Also on the team are junior Katie Muth, sophomores Mary Birdsall, Barbara Bakh and Bailey Sciambra, and freshmen Maureen Muth, Claire Maxson, Anna Arend, Shannon Pace and Rachel Nelson.

“We have only two girls returning, so literally this is a brand new team,” the coach said. “But I think they will be competitive and give a good account of themselves all year long.”

Boys Basketball

The Crusaders return six players, and Alvarez expects them to contend for the Northern Pacific Athletic Conference title.

“A lot of the other teams in the league are young and we’ve got a lot of experience coming back,” said Alvarez, who is assisted by Jeff Caravalho.

The boys opened their season at Summerfield Waldorf on Monday with a 64-29 loss, which didn’t concern Alvarez too much since it’s a Div. IV opponent and his is a Div. V squad. The Crusaders will continue their tough preseason at PUC Prep this Monday.

Senior captain Daniel Caravalho, a 5-foot-10 shooting guard, and 5-8 sophomore guard Anthony Kersting led Trinity in its opener and are the go-to players, Alvarez said.

The other captain is 5-11 senior forward Peter Kersting, while 6-foot senior forward Kyle O’Brien and 6-foot junior center Patrick Rowles round out the current starters.

Junior shooting guard Sean Ryan is currently the first player off the bench. Rounding out the squad are senior Alex Nelson, juniors Sean Thornton, Dustin Johnson and Joseph Toscano, and freshmen Joe Thornton and Daniel Rowles.

Alvarez, who previous coached boys basketball in Optimist leagues, just finished coaching most of this group in soccer at Trinity Prep. That team went 2-4-1 in league play and 2-10-2 overall, falling 2-1 to Millennium-Tracy in the first round of the playoffs.

“We really didn’t have too much time to prepare for these first basketball games, but we’ll get better,” he said.