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By TYLER RALEY | Special to the Reporter

HELENA – A revamped area will be a large challenge, but the Helena Huskies are confident that they can be successful and make a run this season.

Following a 2023 campaign that ended sooner than they would have liked in the area tournament, the Huskies are returning some key talent that now has the experience needed to lead them to success.

In year two with the program, coach Amanda Livingston has seen a lot of progress during the offseason that she strongly believes will translate to the regular season.

“We’ve had a really good summer,” Livingston said. “I think as long as everyone stays healthy, I think we’re going to be a really good, strong team this year. I have six seniors, and a lot of those have been playing together since freshman on the varsity team, so they’re really connecting.”

That senior group is led by the talented setter Kylie Scoles, who is looking to make more noise after earning a spot on the All-County Second Team last year. Scoles’ 853 assists were the fourth most in the county in 2023, and she also racked up 278 digs on the season.

Livingston also mentioned Lauren Sively as a key senior to go alongside Scoles, as she has developed well over the summer while taking the younger players under her mentorship to make them better players.

Addison Dockery is a senior outside hitter who was also outstanding last season and will be a key leader in her final season. She also looks to make an appearance on the All-County team again after earning a spot on the Second Team with 358 kills and 223 digs.

With a handful of sophomores stepping up to the varsity level, Livingston is overjoyed about the veterans she has teaching them, wanting her players to get the best experience possible.

“(The seniors) can speak a lot to (the sophomores) through experience,” Livingston said. “They all get along so well. They’re friends on the court and off the court, so even sophomores and seniors, they’re constantly going and playing pickleball together, playing beach (volleyball) together. They’re constantly always doing stuff, and I think that has a lot to do with senior leadership kind of taking that initiative with those sophomores and including them.”

Livingston believes that the true strength of her team will be on the defensive side of the ball. She sees aa lot of fierceness and confidence from her players and knows they can fight for every point.

“We’re real gritty. In all the things that we have played this year, those girls are running down balls to other courts, they’re running into the score-keeping table and they’re getting the ball up and they’re making plays off of it,” Livingston said. “I think they’ve realized, ‘Hey, if we do this, if we play gritty, if we don’t stop, we can win points out.’ I think that’s a lot of it. They’re real scrappy and they’re real gritty.”

With new local foes jumping into the area like Spain Park and Chelsea, Livingston knows her team is going to need to play with that mindset in every game in order to pull out some wins.

The other thing that will be crucial to success: staying healthy. While the team has a mindset that they can do special things this season, Livingston understands that this squad cannot afford injuries if they want to play in the postseason.

“I truly feel this team is bought in to wanting to make it past area play and to continue on,” Livingston said. “It’s kind of a balancing act for us. We have just the right amount of hitters and we have tons of DS’s (defensive specialists), but we don’t have any hitters that can be a DS or any DS’s that can really be a hitter, so they’ve got to stay healthy.”