What is the future of Forbes Road girls hoops?
For the last two years, numbers have been a real struggle for Forbes Road's girls basketball program.
It's not easy to forget when the Cardinals beat Fannett-Metal in 2014-15 despite having just three girls on the court when the final buzzer rang.
Or how Forbes Road clawed its way to the District 5-A playoffs last season with its six-girl army.
But that burden is now someone else's to bear. Jamie Gelvin has been hired as the new girls hoops coach, replacing Jeff Gelvin, who was the girls coach for two seasons.
"With Jeff, I think it did wear on him last year," Forbes Road school board president Kirby Shoemaker said. "It was a lot of stress to field a team with six girls, and it just wore him down. He didn't have the excitement or enthusiasm that Jamie does. He was prepared to jump right in and showed great enthusiasm for the girls program."
Jamie was hired at a recent board meeting, and Shoemaker said he already had new ideas about how to set up practices and drills.
But gaining more numbers still isn't an easy fix.
"It's still way too early in the situation to get into (recruiting) and that type of stuff," Jamie said. "There is some preliminary stuff that we're talking about doing, but we're still trying to figure out exactly how to go about the whole thing."
Jamie Gelvin is a 1997 Forbes Road, and, ironically, played four years of varsity basketball under Jeff Gelvin.
"Probably 85 percent or better of the things that I've learned about basketball is from playing for him," Jamie said. "We want to see numbers of kids before we make any real decisions, but there are tons and tons of (challenges). If we only have six, we're going to have to get creative."
At the time the girls basketball coaching position was opened, there were only four girls committed to playing in 2016-17, according to former assistant coach Stacy Gelvin. That number went down by one when McKenzie Gelvin said she has elected not to play her senior season.
But according to the school board, more girls have said they plan to play, and at this time, there does not appear to be a threat that Forbes Road won't field a team.
"From the last I heard, there was a definite six girls, but there could be even eight or nine," Shoemaker said. "From what we are told, there will be definitely be a Forbes Road girls basketball team. Whether or not we go anywhere with it, or we just play games and get the experience, we won't know that until it's over."