By Brian Shaw | [email protected] 

The Cottonwood Colts girls basketball team is in a brutal region, with teams touting Division I prospects at every turn. 

For a program once as proud as Cottonwood's — one that hasn't been to a state playoff game in five years — losing six seniors to graduation has to hurt. 

Also, losing almost all of your games and going 2-18 in 2017 has to feel painful, in a matter of speaking. 

But don't tell that to the Colts head coach Janae Hirschi. The veteran head coach still brings back plenty of firepower, starting with Katie Haglund. 

The 5-foot-3 senior guard was Cottonwood's second leading scorer last year and will be a focal point of the Colts' offense in 2018. 

Haglund scored 6.4 points per game for the Colts in 2017, knocking down 22 three-point shots — second best on the team. 

Her marksmanship will come in handy for a young team this year that only returns one starter — Haglund herself. 

Senior guard Meghan Nelson played in all 20 games for Cottonwood last season largely as a reserve. 

But with all the players gone because of graduation, Nelson will step in alongside Haglund in the backcourt to provide Cottonwood with some experience in that position. 

Nelson, a 5-foot-8 shooting guard, averaged 1.7 points per game last year. Other players who might feature prominently for Cottonwood include 5-foot-3 guard Tyra Imbico, who, like Nelson, came off the bench for the Colts but provided her own spark at times. 

Imbico averaged about a point per game last season as did junior guard Zoe Sager. All four players will be called upon, as will 5-foot-6 forward Carlie Roberts, to get Cottonwood back to prominence. 

That will not be an easy task for the young Colts, who start their preseason at Bountiful on Nov. 20 before coming back home to take on Payson on Nov. 27. 

The Colts will then travel to Cyprus on Nov. 29 to close out the month of November.