The 2015-16 season was a rebuilding campaign for Fuqua School’s varsity boys basketball team, and it will give the Falcons a good foundation to work with this season.

Fuqua was quite young in terms of experience last season.

“Julian Gee was really the only player we had returning last year that played varsity basketball the year before,” Falcons Head Coach Charles Thomas said.

Four star senior athletes, who had graduated from Fuqua following the 2014-15 season, possessed experience and skills that were sorely missed after their departure.

Thomas had to bring up players who had been on the junior varsity squad to help fill the void. They got their first taste of varsity play while navigating an ambitious schedule put together by former head coach Marcus Gregory, who had been trying to give his experienced team a challenge.

“Some of the games were scheduled, so we just honored it,” Thomas said. “We were trying to play that schedule with basically JV kids.”

The Falcons ended up going 5-18.

Though he would not predict the number of wins Fuqua will achieve this season, Thomas sees clear potential to improve on last year.

“I think we will, again, because you’ve got guys back who got that experience last year,” he said. “We’re going to be better just because of that.”

“And I think our kids, they did some things in the offseason this past summer, worked hard, and so I think some of them are going to reap some benefits from that,” Thomas continued. “So, we’re going to be better, don’t know how much better, I don’t know how good other teams are, but we’re going to be better. I really believe that.”

The Falcons will also be playing a more reasonable schedule.

“We’re playing schools that are more like us mission-wise and more like us size-wise, and I think that makes a difference just in itself,” Thomas said.

Fuqua loses only two players from last season due to graduation — guards Jonathan Kelly and Tyler Frink. Kelly, who was also a soccer player, had the most opportunity to contribute as Frink was sidelined for all but a few games due to a shoulder injury suffered during football season.

The other seven players on the 2015-16 roster will be back, though several of them have gotten a late start to preseason practice because they were part of the successful varsity football team that reached the state semifinals.

This year’s varsity boys basketball squad features three seniors, nine juniors and one sophomore.

Expected to lead the Falcons are four key players, starting with Gee, a senior power forward/center who stands approximately 6 feet 5 inches tall.

“He’s a special kid,” Thomas said. “He’s worked really hard this offseason to get ready for basketball, and he’s shown a lot of leadership with the younger kids in getting them in the gym and doing workouts with them … I’m expecting a good season out of him.”

The coach’s son, Tyler Thomas, will continue playing the point guard position.

“He’s back as a junior,” Coach Thomas said. “I think he’ll be better, stronger, obviously (he) will know more about what’s expected at the varsity level having to play it as a sophomore coming up from the JV, so I think we’ll be better off at that position.”

Senior 6-foot-4-inch Ed Newman is coming off a strong year on the gridiron and will be back as a shooting forward/power forward.

“He got a lot of on-court experience last year, and he played JV the year before that as a 10th-grader,” Thomas said. “We’re expecting big things out of him.”

Michael Ford, who transferred in from Powhatan High School, is the lone sophomore on the team and is expected to contribute as a shooting guard/shooting forward.

“He’s a really good shooter,” Thomas said. “So, he’s going to help us in that respect, giving us a perimeter guy that we didn’t have as much of last year.”

The coach said those four players will be relied upon to score.

“We’ll get a collective effort from everybody else on doing all the intangible things,” he said.

The Falcons start the season on Friday, Dec. 2, when they visit Banner Christian School, with tipoff set for 7 p.m.