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jjarrett@islandpacket.com
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Peering into Bob Sulek's eyes, you can almost see the wheels spinning in the mind of Hilton Head Preparatory School's legendary girls basketball coach.
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Those gears are churning a little faster these days.
"I'm going to have to stay up a little later at night, trying to find some way we can steal a few more baskets," Sulek said. "There's always some tears at this stage of the game, because there are new kids. It's never easy the first several weeks."
This year more than ever.
As Sulek and the Dolphins embark on a season in which they'll aim for their fifth consecutive SCISAA Class 3-A state title, they do so with a new cast of characters who must fill the void left by the graduation of four players -- Alexandra Fuller, Katie Butler, Catherine Callaway and Kim Zwerner -- who anchored Prep's four championship teams and accounted for two-thirds of the Dolphins' scoring last season.
"We have a lot of young players, and our team is improving as we get older, so I hope by the end of this year, and I hope in future years we can build a dynasty like the seniors left us," sophomore Kathleen Blum said. "But no one is going to be able to do what they did. They left big shoes to fill, but we're going to try."
Blum might have to stretch her toes more than anyone to fill those shoes. She takes over the point guard position vacated by Fuller, who leaves as Prep's all-time leading scorer. She has been groomed for this job, serving as Fuller's understudy the past couple of years, all the while preparing for the day she would take the reins.
Although she won't light up the scoreboard the way Fuller did, Blum is a tenacious defender and a vocal leader, and she is surrounding by players Sulek expects to blossom into offensive weapons. Eighth-grader Jill Brunori, who is temporarily sidelined by a pulled back muscle, averaged 25 points per game in preseason scrimmages, her older sister, sophomore Kate Brunori, could be a force in the paint if she's able to return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and guard Becky DeRose gives Prep an outside shooting threat.
But these Dolphins have long been relegated to supporting roles, and they're still growing into their expanded responsibilities.
"It's an adjustment," Sulek said. "We're yelling at them constantly and correcting every mistake, and the mistakes are flying 100 miles an hour.
"But we're getting there."
Whether that means they can get back to the state championship game remains to be seen. In past years, there has been no doubt the Dolphins would be disappointed if they fell short of the title game, and that goal apparently hasn't changed.
"I hope it's still a disappointment," DeRose said. "It will be disappointing to me if we don't win another one. I want to win another one, and I think we have the ability to. It's just a question of whether we can get there in four months or so. It will take a lot of work."
The Dolphins seem eager to take on that task.
"We're kind of starting a new chapter of Hilton Head Prep basketball," Kate Brunori said.
They can only hope for the same happy ending.
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