Staff file photo / Brian Yauger. Western Reserve’s Quincy Miller brings the ball up the floor during a game last season.

Western Reserve coach Steve Miller has been with his group of seniors for a long time. Some longer than others, like his daughter Quincy.

As a senior class, this group has the chance to do something no other girls team at Western Reserve has done. If the Blue Devils can reach the district finals again, it would be the first time a class has done that in each of their four seasons with the program. A win in that game would be this senior class’ third district title, something no other senior class has accomplished in program history.

While the Western Reserve seniors have a chance to make history, that doesn’t make this last go-around any less bittersweet.

“I coached those guys when they were in fourth and fifth grade, so I’ve been watching them compete and play hard. So this is kind of a bittersweet moment,” Miller said. “You’re enjoying it every day at practice, but sometimes you hear one of them say, ‘That was our last first practice,’ or ‘That was our last scrimmage,’ or things like that, and that kind of hits you a little bit as a Dad, but you realize you’re always going to get to do this again as a coach.

“But I can’t get away from the fact that it is both. A lot of these girls are like my daughters, so this is a special senior class to me. I want them to go out the way I feel they have earned and have worked for years, and that’s as champions. I want them to at least get another opportunity to compete in that regional.”

The goal is plain and simple for the Blue Devils this year. They want to make history. The expectation is the same as always. In Miller’s time at the helm of the Western Reserve program, they’ve established a high standard of success. Each year’s group has the challenge of maintaining that standard.

“These seniors are trying to continue moving the program in an upward direction,” Miller said. “This is entering my 13th season coaching. In the 12 previous seasons, we’ve been to the district championship eight times, and we’ve won it six, so obviously, we always have high expectations.”

The engine of this Western Reserve team is in the team’s backcourt.

Seniors Kylee Ramsey and Quincy Miller are expected to continue generating a lot of the Blue Devils’ offense this season. Expect to see junior Giana Leone, who started every game last season, utilized more on offense as well.

Replacing Isabella Mauro in the frontcourt is no easy task for the Blue Devils, and is arguably their hardest challenge going into the season. Replacing your program’s all-time rebounding leader is a big responsibility. Coach Miller admits that it’s probably not a one-player job to fill her shoes anyway.

Junior six-footer Chloeigh Endsley will be counted on this year to handle some of those responsibilities, however.

“She got her feet wet last year, got a lot of minutes this summer, so we’re gonna expect big things out of her in the paint,” Miller said of Endsley.

Sophomore Kylah Busch is expected to also handle duties in the paint.

Western Reserve also has multiple freshmen that Miller thinks realistically could handle starting minutes if need be.

Baylie Sinn and Harper Darney have impressed during the offseason. Expect to see them logging big minutes in the rotation.

In addition to the normal challenges playing in the Scarlet Tier of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference provides, Western Reserve has plenty of challenging opponents on its non-league slate. Girard, Columbiana, Cardinal Mooney and Berlin Hiland are all on the schedule this season.

This is something the Blue Devils are used to however. Accustomed to playing into late February, these regular season games are the perfect preparation for another deep run.

As a team with a strong history, Miller mentioned Berlin Hiland specifically as a game that’s really going to make his team better this season.

“To be able to go there with our JVs and varsity, it’s going to be a learning lesson, for sure, but those are just things that you need to go through,” Miller said. “You need to get exposed and find out things you need to work on under pressure as you’re building up for the second half of the year.

“I think our schedule is going to prepare us. I know we’re going to compete and we’re going to play hard. You always need a little bit of lady luck on your side, and certainly you gotta stay healthy. The chemistry has got to come together, so there’s a lot involved. It’s not just rolling out and sitting down watching the show.”