ALBANY — Derek Allen enters his third season as head coach of the Comets and is hopeful the wins/losses ratio trends upward this year. A season ago, Albany finished sixth out of seven teams with a 2-10 conference record, and went 7-16 overall.

“Our goal is to take care of the ball and defend better than last year, which should put us in position to compete in our non-conference and conference schedules,” Allen said. “We’ve been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round the last two years, so we’d like to make a deeper run this year.”

Returning for the Comets includes second-team all-conference guard Josh Dahl, a senior, and honorable mention guard Corbin Kelly, also a senior. The two combined to score 28.1 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. Throw in senior center Jamison Stauffacher (11 ppg, 8.5 rpg), and Albany has a triple-threat on its first line.

“Our seniors have a lot of varsity basketball experience and we expect them to be leaders on and off the court for us this year,” Allen said.

The experience drops off significantly after the three seniors, with four sophomores averaging a combined 1.9 points per game last year returning. Add in two freshmen in Andy Gertsch and Tyler Anderson, and Allen understands his team’s success will be based on how quickly his youth adjusts to extended varsity minutes.

“We’re quite young, with two-thirds of our team being freshmen or sophomores. So, a lot of our roster will be adjusting to sustained playing time on the varsity level,” Allen said.

Pecatonica, Barneveld and Black Hawk are expected to contend for the conference title, Allen said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised to see any team compete on any given night, which should make this an interesting year in our conference.”