Panther Valley girls basketball coach Bill “Dapper” Lynn doesn’t want to rush things.

Lynn, beginning his third year in charge of the Panthers, knows patience will be important.

Lynn is stressing small steps before worrying about making long strides. He talks about daily improvement instead of season-long goals. He knows being mentally tougher is just as important as being physically stronger.

When you are in charge of a program that had its last winning season before most of your players were born, a turnaround probably isn’t going to happen overnight.

Lynn is realistic, but he is also optimistic.

Because despite a 2-20 record a year ago and 16 consecutive losing seasons, Lynn is finding plenty of positives when he looks at this year’s team.

“We have four returning starters and some really talented freshmen and sophomores who are going to push for playing time,” Lynn said. “That combination gives us more depth than the program has had in a long time.

“In addition, we have really nice size and we should also have a bit more firepower than we have had recently. We have three girls who are 5-10 or taller and several girls who I feel will be a threat to score.”

If Lynn is right, that will help negate two of the Panthers’ biggest weaknesses from a year ago — the inability to score and rebound. Panther Valley averaged just over 27 points a game a year ago and struggled on the boards.

“We want to take advantage of some of the size we have and try to pound the ball inside more this season,” Lynn said. “I also think we will be a much better shooting team from the perimeter. I’ve been really happy with the way we’ve shot the ball during the preseason.”

Lynn said as many as eight or nine different girls could see time in the starting lineup this season and all of them should be part of the normal rotation.

The projected early-season starting lineup has Christina Dacey at point guard, 5-11 Erika Dubosky, 5-10 Molly Sheridan and 5-10 Richelle Filer on the wings, and 5-9 Olivia Dacey at center. Christina Dacey, Sheridan and Filer all started a year ago, Olivia Dacey is a sophomore who missed all of last season with an injury, and Dubosky is a freshman.

Also expected to see significant time are Chloe Miller, Megan Pascoe, Abigail Hoben and Gianna Steber.

“Christina is still our leader,” Lynn said. “This is her fourth year on the varsity, and third year as a starter. We will go as she goes.

She’s our best ballhandler, our top returning scorer (11.2 ppg.), and is a great example for our underclassmen.”

Without a lot of recent positive history to build on, Lynn is stressing a fresh start.

“We are looking for improvement from practice-to-practice and from game-to-game,” he said. “We have some talent, we have some depth, and we have a positive attitude.

“I really believe we are going to be a lot more competitive team this season.”

That’s the first step. That’s the patient approach.