ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — The Central Christian Saints boys basketball team enters this season with lofty expectations.

The Saints hope hard work and dedication lead the team towards a conference championship.

Goal number one for the Saints this season, just like any another season, is to win their conference. It is especially important to them this season because head coach Dan Crotts and the Saints host the conference tournament.

“My goal this year is to make it to the final four. We are hosting it this year which to not be in a tournament in which you are hosting will not be fun,” Crotts said. “That would be my goal.”

For the Saints to reach their goals their going to have to play four quarters of consistently good basketball to be successful.

“In every game we have be consistent. We can’t start off with bad quarters like we did last night; if you do that against good teams they are going to bury you,” Crotts said. “We can’t wait until the last minute to make runs we have to be consistent throughout games.”

With the team so far struggling just a bit defensively, Crotts hopes to rely on his young slashers to take the ball to the basket to propel them towards a conference championship.

This season the Saints return 10 players from a season ago including four seniors: Brad Yockers, Tim Shelton, Bucky Enfinger, and Mark Parsons.

Shelton returns for his senior year as the leading scorer for the Saints. Last season Shelton averaged 16.5 points per game. He was also among the team leaders in rebounding as well.

Enfinger rejoins the team after averaging seven points for the Saints a season ago. Yockers finished with 6.7 points per game.

Crotts also hopes that Yockers could prove to be the X-factor for his basketball team with his strength of his shooting leading the way.

With no big tournaments to look forward to other than the conference tournament at the end of the season, the Saints have a few big games circled on their schedule this season, including against a team that has traditionally given them trouble.

They hope this season they can return the favor.

“Anytime we play Alethia, they are our biggest rival,” Crotts said. “The best team in our conference for the last few years has been S.L. Jones. Frankly we haven’t been able to play with them real well for the last couple of years. I am hoping to have some fun with them this year. Will we beat them I don’t know, but I want to give them a good game.”

So far this season the Saints have racked up a couple of big wins against Christian Collegiate Academy, and West Florida Baptist Academy. Both of the games were played at home.

In their last game against West Florida Baptist both teams came out of the gates strong as both teams racked up a total of 55 points in the first quarter, giving West Florida Baptist a nine point lead heading into the second quarter.

The second quarter saw neither team score giving way to a Saints comeback. The Saints defeated West Florida Baptist 58-53.

The Saints will be in action again on Dec. 6 when they host Calvary Christian out of Fort Walton Beach. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.