NEW Wagga Heat coach Zac Maloney is entering his first season in charge with realistic expectations as the team looks to recharge after a year on the sidelines.
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While the Waratah League season was eventually cancelled due to COVID, the Heat had already opted to take the year off, but will look to rebuild under former captain Maloney in 2021.
Maloney, who will also play, is still holding out hope some experienced heads like Scott Hare and Shaun Carter will return to the fold, but is otherwise planning on fielding a young team.
"At the moment we're looking very young. If we go with the squad we have now we're probably looking at a rebuilding season," he said.
"But that's what we'll deal with if that's the case, and hopefully we have a good young core that wants to stick together for a few years.
"The beauty of it is these guys will get a run much earlier in their careers. When I first started playing, I didn't really see minutes for the first three or four years.
"We may not be as competitive as we want to be, but guys are going to get experience and hopefully we can make the season sun, and hopefully in a few years we'll head to the top of the division.
"One of the messages each week is we're not focused on wins and losses, success can be measured each week on how much we improve and looking back at the end of the season on how far we've come."
Maloney is hopeful the recent COVID outbreaks in NSW won't harm the league's chances of running this year, with Wagga Blaze also looking to return to the women's competition.
The season will also begin a little later than usual in April.
"Because Basketball NSW is Sydney-based and there's a lot of Sydney teams in it, we don't know what's going to happen but we'll keep our heads down and hope the competition is as strong as it usually is."
Youngsters like centre Eddie Merkel and the versatile Jacob Edwards, who have been in the system for a while, will play big roles.
"We're sitting on a squad of 15 or 16 players, it's still good numbers," Maloney said.
"Usually in February you get a bunch of guys move to town for RAAF, army or uni, so we'll see if that brings anything."
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