Staff file photo / Preston Byers. Austintown Fitch guard Sam Severn drives into the lane during a game against Canton McKinley last season.

AUSTINTOWN — Austintown Fitch went 14-10 last season in Dan Horacek’s first season as head coach.

The Falcons began the year on a tear, racing out to an 11-3 start, before faltering over the second half of the season and eventually falling to Stow-Munroe Falls in the district semifinals.

As Fitch prepares to enter Horacek’s second season, not much has changed. The Falcons still have a set goal to win the All-American Conference championship and make it as far as they can in the Division II playoff bracket.

“Numbers are a little bit lower this year than they were last year,” Horacek said. “Kids are giving me everything they’ve got. Offensively, nothing has changed much. Defensively, nothing has changed much. We try to keep everything as consistent as we can.”

This season, Fitch returns an experienced roster, led by five seniors and three juniors.

That senior class, consisting of Sam Severn, Rachel Spalding, Liz Spalding, Jenna Profanchik and Ryann McGahagan, has played together since fifth and sixth grade. With that familiarity comes a high level of chemistry on the court.

“It’s really awesome because sometimes we don’t even have to call a play. They just automatically get into something,” Horacek said. “They know how to get each other open. They know how to play basketball the correct way. It takes a lot of stress off the head coach’s shoulders, for sure.”

Severn and Spalding were both key pieces on last year’s team. Spalding is the team’s leading returning scorer after averaging eight points per game last season and Severn averaged 4.4 points per game.

The three juniors each look to see their roles increase considerably this year. Amiya Harris will be the Falcons’ starting point guard, according to Horacek, while Kaelyn Bower and Jeweliana Farmer will each be key pieces for Fitch, as well.

“They’ve been back-and-forth between varsity and JV in the past,” Horacek said. “Now they’re full varsity players.”

One key aspect about this year’s squad is that the Falcons don’t have a ton of size in their lineups.

That comes with both pros and cons. Fitch could play fast and up-tempo on offense, while being versatile on defense. However, the lack of size can also hurt them on the glass and against opposing teams that do have size.

“We’re a small team, but we’ve still got to be able to find ways to rebound,” Horacek said. “We still have to be able to get out in transition, and we still have to be able to run our offense and get open shots. So that way, it doesn’t matter if you have three bigs and two guards, or all guards, you gotta find ways to get defensive stops, rebound and put the ball in the basket.”

Horacek knows that the Falcons will have to be “aggressive” on both ends of the floor, especially on defense.

“We can’t sit back. We need to get steals and turnovers,” Horacek said. “We have to just use our strengths as our strengths, which is being athletic.”

As always, the Falcons are prepared for a tough, competitive season in the AAC. Howland, Canfield, Warren G. Harding and Boardman always present a tough test for Fitch.

“It’s funny because all the coaches know each other well,” Horacek said. “We all text each other, we have conversations with one another. We all know each other so well, so there’s no surprises. All we know going into those games is it’s going to be a 32-minute battle, and hopefully you’re the ones that come out on top. The kids know each other from playing together or against each other in the summer, AAU. So it’s a pretty interwoven community. It’s going to be very competitive.”

Fitch already has one game under its belt — a 55-40 road defeat to Hudson last weekend. Horacek got an early sense of what his team will look like this season.

“Very encouraged,” he said. “Hudson’s a very good basketball team. They’re going to win a lot of games up there in the Suburban League. It was just a bad matchup for us — they went 5-foot-10, 6-foot-2. But I thought the kids played their absolute guts out. Credit to Hudson, they played really good defense and were able to get rebounds. We did some good things too, I’m just looking forward to watching them continue to progress through the whole season.”

Next up, the Falcons will have their home opener against Kenston on Dec. 2 at 6:15 p.m.