Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Ebonee Altmann of Fort Dodge goes after a loose ball last season in the Dodger gym.

A new era of Fort Dodge girls basketball will officially begin on Friday, as the Dodgers take on Urbandale under the direction of Scott Messerly.

Varsity tip time is set for 7:45 p.m. inside the FDSH gym.

This will be the first game of Messerly’s career at the Class 5A level, but the long-time head coach is no stranger to the sidelines in prep hoops. The 50-year-old Messerly guided the St. Edmond girls to 171 victories during a successful 12-year stint, which included North Central Conference championships in 2012, ’13 and ’14.

The Dodgers aren’t starting completely from scratch, but only four players return with significant varsity experience under their belt. Combined with learning a new system under Messerly, and patience will be necessary — especially in the early going.

“I told them (on Thursday) that we want to focus on playing good defense, rebounding and doing the little things that we can control through effort,” said Messerly, a 1986 St. Edmond graduate. “Those things are essential to winning, and aren’t always directly controlled by talent. It’s more about ‘want to’ than skill set.

“We can’t worry as much about our opponent at this point. We have to take care of ourselves first. There will be nights where we’ll struggle. There will be nights where we’ll be down big. But we have to concentrate on competing and playing through the rough patches. If something isn’t going right, don’t get shaken up. Keep fighting.”

Messerly’s lineup and rotation is, of course, a work in progress. For the opener, he is starting seniors Ebonee Altman and Juliet Thompson, junior Rachel Sporrer, sophomore Cheyenne Miller-Hameed, and freshman Tory Bennett.

A number of other players are also in the mix.

“We have to figure out what works and what doesn’t first and foremost,” Messerly said. “And that takes real game time. It’s hard to say how they’ll react, especially given a lot of them haven’t seen the court a lot at this level.

“We’ll need to identify, as a coaching staff, the good, the bad and everything in between, and go from there.”

Messerly will be assisted by former FDSH and Iowa Central standout Baileigh (O’Brien) Ashbrook. Nate Pardun coaches the junior varsity, and Damien Miller — the lone returnee from last season — is again the leader of the freshmen.

The J-Hawks were 10-13 a year ago. Urbandale is coming into this campaign from a completely different point of view, though; while the Dodgers saw all but 60 of their 1,079 points graduate, the J-Hawks welcome 1,106 of their 1,270 points back.

Standout guard DeeDee Pryor (14.6-point average) returns, as does Maya Gyamfi (13.4), Mylea Cole (7.5) and Sierra Herzberg (4.5), among others. Eleven of Urbandale’s top 12 scorers from 2017-18 are on the roster again.

“They’re very talented, but it’s the CIML — every school and every program brings something to the table,” Messerly said. “There are no easy games. We have to be physically and mentally ready every quarter of every night.”

The J-Hawks swept FDSH last season, winning 53-41 and 68-48.

Messerly is replacing Julius Michalik, the former Iowa State University star who took a teaching and coaching position at Ridge View.