ALBANY — The Comets played last season without any seniors, but two of their five starters are no longer with the program after moving to a new school district.

Jevon Ferguson led Albany with 9.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and was an all-conference guard as a sophomore last year. Hunter Karch, now a sophomore, averaged 1.7 points and 4.4 boards per contest. Both are now gone.

“We didn’t have any seniors last year, so we struggled to win games as you might expect,” said fifth-year Albany coach Derek Allen, as his team went just 2-21 on the year.

Back for the Comets are seniors Clay Hulbert (5.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and Rob Schroeder (7.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg). Also back is junior guard Tyler Anderson (5.1 ppg, 3.8 ppg). Hulbert was honorable mention all-conference last season.

Bench players back include seniors Luke Johnson (2.9 ppg) and Justin Eastwood, plus juniors Andy Gertsch (1.7 ppg) and Ben Grosz (3.6 ppg) and sophomore Ethan Koss (2.9 ppg).

“We have a group of seniors who have a lot of varsity experience and a mix of younger players who are ready to compete for varsity minutes, so we’ll certainly be more competitive on a night-to-night basis.”

Allen called his team’s size and varsity experience strengths for this season. The shortest player returning is 5-foot-10, while five of the eight players on varsity stand 6-feet or taller.

However, Allen said some of his concerns lie in finding consistent scoring and outside shooting.

“I think our size and athleticism will be assets this year, while finding consistent scoring and taking care of the ball are questions as we go into the season,” Allen said.

Regardless of how poorly the last couple of seasons have gone, Allen is optimistic about the program’s future. Last year the Comets didn’t have enough players to field a junior varsity squad, but this year he expects almost two dozen kids to play.

“The good news is that the high school program has grown in numbers and we look to have over 20 kids out this year, which will give us a full JV and varsity team this year,” Allen said.

Allen expects defending champion Monticello to remain as one of the top teams in the conference, but the race for the title is up for grabs.

“I think Monticello is the team to beat based on their success last year and the returning players they have, but the conference looks to be pretty wide open this year.”