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The LaFayette Bulldogs released their basketball schedule for both the boys and girls teams, and the season features several key matchups beginning with a game against Notasulga.

The boys’ team will be coached by Chase Lewis while the girls team will be under the direction of first year head coach Thaddius Tucker.

Lewis knows this season will be a challenge, especially after losing three starters.

“I lost six players from last year, including three starters,” Lewis said.

“We lost our leading scorer and our leading rebounder. We’re bringing back eight juniors. I think we’ll be pretty good this year. We’re going to compete and play hard. We have some very coachable kids.”

Lewis knows that the schedule will be difficult, especially with Valley as an early game.

“We have a really competitive area,” Lewis said.

“Lanett has been to the final four the last two years. They’re bringing back some experience. Reeltown came down from 3A, and they’re good competition. Horseshoe Bend gave us some problems last year. They looked really good over the summer.”

The Bulldogs will also renew their rivalry with Lanett for possibly the last time, but that game won’t be played until Jan. 6.

“It’s a good thing for both teams that we play that late because we can use November and December to work out the kinks and build chemistry,” Lewis said.

“We can get a lot of games under our belt, and by the time we get to area play, we’ll know who we are as a team. We can go into area competition with our best team.”

Lewis also knows that Valley will be one of the toughest teams on their schedule this season.

“We play at Valley on Dec. 3, and that’s going to be extremely hard,” Lewis said.

“They beat us by 30 at their place last year, and then we actually beat them at home. Valley has a great team this year, and it going to be a dog fight.”

Lewis has been able to get an early look at his team, especially since they started practice this week.

“We’ve used this week to the best of our advantage,” Lewis said.

“We got a lot of work done. We used this week as kind of a refresher from this summer. They guys know what to do. They know my expectations. They know the system. It feels like we haven’t missed a beat from the summer. We look really good this week. We’re just trying to perfect the things we already know.”

Lewis is using their first week of practice to improve on defense.

“We’re buckling down on defense,” Lewis said.

“We’re a decent scoring team, but if we can stop other teams from scoring, that will help in the long run. We’ve been holding each other accountable on defense.”

One of the biggest parts of LaFayette’s schedule is a Christmas Tournament at Auburn.

“We don’t know what teams are laying in that, but there will be some 6A and 7A teams,” Lewis said.

“I wanted the chance to play some bigger schools, and it’ll be a great test for us before we get into area play.”