Head coach Dobee Plaisance and the Nicholls women’s basketball team will lean on young players early this season, as they begin the 2015-2016 campaign with four veteran starters sitting out with injuries.

The Colonels tip-off the season Friday with a home game against Southern University at New Orleans. The team divides the season into three parts, with the concept that each section should prepare them for the next phase of the schedule.

Plaisance views playing the pre-conference schedule while veteran players heal as a blessing in disguise.

“We’re hurt and we’re young, but the young get older and the hurt get better,” Plaisance said. “Having our players gain this kind of experience early in the season can only help us.”

This year’s squad has six freshmen on the roster, hailing from as close as Lockport and as far away as Brisbane, Australia. Due to the injuries to upperclassmen, the half-dozen can expect to experience the next level of basketball in their first semester of college.

While Plaisance and her staff figure out how best to utilize their versatile freshman class, they already know what they have in their injured returning starters Tia Charles, LiAnn McCarthy and Taylor Morrison. All three either started or played in every game last season, with Charles earning All-Southland Honorable Mention as a freshman.

“We have an immense amount of potential with our freshmen, but potential is a bad word,” Plaisance said. “Potential is unused talent.”

For Plaisance and her coaching staff, their mission in the preseason phase of this season is how quickly they can turn the talent of their freshmen and reserve players into tangible results on the court. With half of the roster being newcomers, the coaching staff is excited about the added depth, which allows them to change their style of play within a game.

Nicholls has experienced unprecedented success under Plaisance, with last season’s team setting a program record 13 wins in Southland Conference play. Their three-seed in the conference tournament was also a new program best, but the Colonels lost their first game to eventual champions— Northwestern State University.

“What we’ve had in the past that dictated our success was our tremendous amount of leadership,” Plaisance said. “We need our veterans to carry that torch of holding ourselves to a high standard on and off the court.”

While the players on the court will provide the physical aspect of the game, the heart and soul of the team will not suit up for the Colonels this season. According to Plaisance, that honor belongs to redshirt senior Emani White.

White will sit out this season after a successful hip surgery related to her battle with Lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that confuses the body’s natural antibodies into attacking healthy tissue. Despite not being able to touch the floor this season, White will affect the Colonel’s play by being an extra coach of sorts on the bench.

At practice, it is often White yelling at Plaisance with defensive assignments and adjustments.

“I mean this literally, this child does not shut up,” Plaisance said. “She is constantly talking and encouraging at practice and will definitely be a major part of our success.”