There will be plenty of new faces for the Porters Chapel Academy basketball teams this season.

Derrick Collins joins E.J. Creel’s staff and will have to handle both PCA’s varsity and junior high teams for three weeks until she recovers from recent surgery.

Collins brings a lot of enthusiasm to a young girls squad that will need it after winning one game last season.

“We have a very young team with the varsity girls but I am very excited about them because they are working very hard,” Collins said. The Lady Eagles open their season Nov. 9 against Tri-County.

“They get here about 4 in the afternoon and you literally have to run them out of the gym after two hours,” Collins said.

With the top scorer from last year’s team, Shelby Wells, gone, the Lady Eagles will have to find guidance from a freshman.

“We have Claire Mims to be our sparkplug,” Collins said. “She has some speed and can push the ball for us.”

Sophomore Marchetta Grace will be another key player at a forward spot.

Mims said the Lady Eagles will be better.

“We’ve been practicing hard,” Mims said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

The boys’ team, which started basketball practice this week following the end of the football season, has gotten a big boost from Vicksburg High transfer Ted Briscoe.

“Ted will play the swing spot at two guard and that is something that will help us a great deal because it’s going to free up Matt Warren,” Collins said. “Matt Warren is an excellent 3-point shooter but last year, teams would triple-team him because they didn’t have a guard who could create space. We also have some more new guys that will help as well.”

Steven Purvis will also suit up for the Eagles after not playing basketball last season.

Like the girls team, the Eagles will get a lift from several transfers who played football in the fall. They include seniors Chris Marshall and Jake Boyd, and sophomores Peter Harris and Ledale Turner.

That group will join returning 6-foot-7 center Talbot Buys.

The Eagles are hopeful the new faces can turn around the fortunes of a team that won just a handful of games in the 2009-10 season.