Knocking on wood, crossing fingers, whatever it was, it worked.
For the first time in three years, the Jefferson City Lady Jays will enter the basketball season at full strength and their potential starting lineup ready to go.
"We're healthy and it's nice," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said as the Lady Jays prepared for tonight's season opener against Francis Howell at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"The last two years were tough at the start, but we dealt with it. It got some kids some experience, but it's nice to have everybody ready from the get-go."
This has the potential to be a big season for the Lady Jays.
Seniors Caitlin Anderson (Indiana State) and Micah Linthacum (Missouri) have both signed letters of intent to play at Division I schools. Hannah Nilges, a sophomore, has orally committed to Drake, while sophomore Kara Daly has committed to Missouri in softball.
Add in senior Greta Haarmann and sophomore Sarah Linthacum, who is getting D-I attention, and it's an impressive top six.
"We've got some really good athletes," Conway said. "They all get along, they all want to win and that's a big plus. I feel really good, we're six strong, now we're trying to find a couple of kids who can slide into some roles for us."
The sophomore trio got thrown into the fire last season with the early injuries. But that experience will help this season.
"They are a lot more comfortable than they were at this time last year," Conway said. "We've hit the ground running."
Anderson enters her fourth season as the starting point guard, and that experience is invaluable.
"There's a lot of the time she will call out something without me having to tell her," Conway said. "That's the way it should be when you have a senior leader on the floor. She has a great idea of what I want done out there."
Anderson does a little bit of everything for Jefferson City.
"Her numbers aren't always huge, but I think people can see that how Caitlin goes a lot of the time is how we go," Conway said. "There are nights she can come out and score 18 or 20 points and there are nights she may only have eight points, but she has seven or eight assists to go along with seven or eight rebounds.
"She is doing everything she can to make sure we win."
Micah Linthacum has missed parts of the last two seasons with injuries.
"I can tell she is much more confident in her game than she's been the past couple of years," Conway said. "Having her on the floor will help everybody."
With Linthacum missing so much time, her teammates are still adjusting to having her on the floor.
"They all have high basketball IQs, they are all working on learning how to play together," Conway said.
Haarmann is another versatile player for the Lady Jays.
"She can do a little bit of everything," Conway said. "She works so hard and is ready to do whatever we need her to do."
Nilges, an outside shooting threat, and Sarah Linthacum rounded out the starting five in last week's Jamboree. Daly was the first player off the bench.
"We've got six kids who are very capable of leading us in scoring, so we could be a very difficult team to defend against," Conway said.
That's because the Lady Jays have a the potential to have a strong inside/outside offensive attack.
"We've got kids who can knock it down from the outside and we've got kids who can be very strong near the basket," Conway said.
Chloe Helming is the fourth senior on the squad. There are five juniors - Brooke Bates, Sakkyra King, Taylor Mann, Caitlin Mooney and Laurine Shoki - competing for varsity time.
"There are high expectations, I have high expectations," Conway said. "But we still have to go out and put the work in. We have to prepare each day. We can't jump from the start of the season to the postseason.
"They have high goals, but we have to take it practice by practice, game by game, week by week, month by month. We know what's potentially out there, but we still have to go out and perform, take care of business."
The Lady Jays still have things to work on.
"We're still not in basketball shape," Conway said. "Defensively, we still have some work to do, but that's not a big concern. We just need to get more focused and locked in, but that will come."
Jefferson City will play another challenging schedule, starting with tonight's game against Francis Howell.
"They have a lot of experience back and it will be a good opener for us," Conway said. "I like our schedule, it will get us ready for the postseason. We are going to have to bring our 'A' game because everybody will bring their 'A' game against us."
Last year, Jefferson City was upset by Francis Howell Central in the sectional round.
"It's been burning in the players I'm sure," Conway said. "I think they remember what it felt like and we need to do the things necessary to make sure that doesn't happen again."
Today's JV game will start at 5:30 p.m., followed by the varsity contest around 7 p.m.