The Suffolk Christian Academy girls’ basketball team enters the 2015-16 season with a new coach and an expanded roster.

Coach Daniel Farrenkopf and his family have been a veteran presence at SCA as all three of his children have attended the school since it was called First Baptist Christian School. When the Lady Knights coaching position became open this past offseason, he volunteered to take over.

Farrenkopf has been involved in sports for most of his life, including playing on a basketball team after high school, as well as coaching his boys in an Upward Sports basketball league for several years.

“This is really the first taste of high school coaching that I’ve (had),” he said, but he noted he has great assistant coaches helping him and sees potential for helping the girls grow on the court.

The 2014-15 Lady Knights ended up being a small, eight-player squad, and they struggled, finishing with a 1-21 record overall.

“I definitely am very hopeful and very optimistic that we can improve on that,” Farrenkopf said.

Helping that cause will be a slightly larger group consisting of 10 players, though it will be nine for a little while. Sophomore Brandi Barton broke her finger during a recent practice and must sit out a few games.

“Hopefully she’ll get back pretty quickly,” Farrenkopf said.

This year, Suffolk Christian’s roster features four seniors, two juniors and four sophomores, with no freshmen.

Farrenkopf said one of his assistant coaches, Aaron Burgess, has been working with the girls on drills and conditioning leading up to Thursday’s season opener.

“I feel like we’ll be in pretty good shape going in,” Farrenkopf said. “We’re going to try to run, we’re going to try to do a lot of fast breaks.”

The Lady Knights will be without the services this year of junior forward and star shot-blocker Julia Powell, who has transferred from the team, and guard Ashley Barton, who graduated, but Farrenkopf said, “I feel confident we’ve got the talent to compete.”

He noted he is looking for his seniors to step up and be leaders. Those seniors include forward Zoie Howell, guard Angel Aydlett, guard Brianna Farrenkopf and forward/center Hannah Pearson.

Coach Farrenkopf said he has three girls that are capable of playing point guard — Aydlett, Brianna Farrenkopf and sophomore Katie Glover. He plans to evaluate them during the season to see who does best at the position in game situations.

He definitely is expecting effective performances from his bench this season.

“Several of the girls that won’t be starting will be contributing,” he said.

Farrenkopf sees scoring as the biggest thing his team needs to work on in order to be successful this season.

“That’s what we’ve been focusing on,” he said. “Our defense has been fairly solid.”

Suffolk Christian opens its season against visiting Alliance Christian Academy on Thursday at Wilroy Baptist Church, with tip-off set for 5:30 p.m. The Suffolk Christian boys’ team will play at 7 p.m.