Lady Devils ready

If there truly is strength in numbers, Bart Haflich and his Noxon Lady Red Devils are hoping that the number 6 is the strongest one of all.

That’s because 6 is the number of players the Noxon girls have on their roster this season.

Although there is some talk about bringing up a junior high player or two to augment the Devils’ lineup, the short number of players on hand could derail what could possibly be a pretty good season for the Noxon girls.

“We have some pretty good players, just not very many of them,” Haflich said. “It would have been nice to get a few more but I guess this is what it is like in small-town Montana sometimes.”

Juniors Delaney Weltz and Anna Kaiser, both honorable mention District 14C all-conference picks from last year, return to lead the abbreviated Lady Devils, and junior Kristina Brown and senior Phalyn Fickas also are back.

The dearth of players has Haflich thinking his girls will need to play pretty tough this season. “It is going to take some Iron-woman play for us to be able to compete,” he said. “And we won’t be able to afford any injuries or foul troubles either.”

Ready or not, the Devils open season play at the Tip-Off Tournament in Frenchtown this week, playing Darby at 9 a.m. Friday and Victor at the same time of day Saturday in Frenchtown.