Junior wing Will Yard (above) is one of several who will jump into big minutes for the Aces. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

For Miller, who also runs track at Lower Merion and serves as sports editor for ‘The Merionite,’ this upcoming season marks not just a full season’s chance to contribute to the Aces in a meaningful way as a leader on and off the court, but it’s a dream come true.

“It’s an honor, I’ve been waiting my whole life to have a big role on this team, so I’m just excited to be a part of it this year,” Miller said. “Every year, LM loses a lot of seniors and I feel like every year, they say it’s not gonna be out year, but everybody on this team’s ready to step up, everybody’s been putting in the work to be ready and it just motivates us. We’re ready.”

Meanwhile in the frontcourt, both the 6-3 Yard and 6-4 Dragut will lead the way, but it might be a long season underneath for the Aces. Both Yard and Dragut are still ailing from injuries, the latter, who doubles as a varsity baseball player, of whom is still recovering from surgery for a Jones fracture of his ankle.

“[Dragut’s] a big part of our rebounding equation and he’s been hurt, Will Yard has been hurt [and] we are worried about height,” Downer said. “There might be times when we play four guards. It seems like every basketball coach is going to be a little bit paranoid about a lack of rebounding, but this particular group has us definitely worried in that department. And [it’s going to be] rebounding by committee, our guards are going to have to rebound.”

It’s not just rebounding that’ll have to be done by committee, the scoring for the Aces looks like it’ll be by committee as well with Parrish and Ingram leading the way as the team’s most ‘dynamic scorers’ and Pulsifer, Miller and Dragut right behind them. Depth looks to be a strength this year, with Downer saying he might go as many as ten-deep on a regular basis.

The road back to a Central League threepeat and the regular appearances in districts and states gets no easier this year. Lower Merion opens with a very challenging schedule at Coatesville on Dec. 5, home the next night against Downingtown West and then league play against Garnet Valley and Conestoga.

“It’s gonna be hard, but I gotta keep my team under control most of the time, we’re a small team so gotta play fast, we got to get strong enough [to match up] with teams,” Parrish said. “What I’m going to try to do with my team is uplift them to the most they can be, to the best potential in all games and all practices so we can get off to the right start this season. […] So let’s see what our team is made of.”

However, expectations come playoff time remain the same as always for the Aces, who have qualified for states 16 years in a row – a District 1 record.

“We always want to try to qualify for three tournaments, the league tournament, the district tournament and the state tournament,” Downer said. “The Central League is, in my opinion, kind of top heavy this year with a tremendous Penncrest team, a tremendous defending District 1 champion in Conestoga and a dangerous [Garnet Valley] team. [And] again, we don’t take any of this for granted, but the expectations never change. We want to qualify for these tournaments and [the] next thing that kind of comes onto the radar screen is can you scrape out a 20-win season.”