As the season opener looms at 2 p.m. Saturday at Southwestern, the Howard Payne Lady Jackets women’s basketball program is under new management.

Rachel Janzen, most recently at Allen Community College in Kansas, will make her HPU head coaching debut this weekend,

“I just came from Kansas and I was at a junior college up there for eight years,” Janzen said. “I brought my assistant Coach (Amara) Mills with me. She was with me last year and I love her to death. We’re all about building a program. I don’t feel like it’s good when you jump around after a year or two so I try and lay roots and stick somewhere and that’s what I want to do here.

“Before that I was at Southern Nazarene in Oklahoma which was my alma mater. I played there and won a championship as a player and when I was coaching there we won a championship. It was really bittersweet to go through that as a player and coach at your school, but that’s what I’m looking for here. We go to the conference tournament every year, I know the high expectations that’s here and I accept the challenge. 2011 was the last time we were conference champions so after 10 years we have to get back to the top.”

Coming off a 10-7 record that included a 6-3 mark against American Southwest Conference in a COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, the Lady Jackets were picked to finish seventh out of 11 teams in the preseason coaches and media poll.

“The last couple of years we’ve been middle of the pack and in the preseason rankings they picked us seventh and we’re not very happy about it,” Janzen said. “I told the girls to let that fuel you. I haven’t been here very long but that ticks me off. I think we have really good pieces to the puzzle.

“ETBU is ranked No. 2 and they lost in the championship game last year and they’re really upset about it. UMHB is ranked, Hardin-Simmons is either ranked or getting votes, UT-Dallas is always up there, so there’s a few teams that are nationally-ranked, but I think we can compete right with them. I’ve already watched some film on them and I feel what with what we have, we’ll be OK and very competitive for sure.”

Janzen listed the strengths of this year’s squad as experience and play at the guard positions.

“We have a strong group of upperclassmen but with that said we also have some youngsters that are going to be really good players for us,” Janzen said. “We have shooters, we have guards that can attack the rim, and we have a couple of left-handers. Chelsey Harris, Salina Ali, Bria Neal and Amanda Turpin was the freshman of the year last year and a three-point machine. We have great pieces to the puzzle. Some of the freshmen coming in, specifically Elena Buchanan, she’s going to be really good for us from a physicality and defensive rebounding standpoint in the post.”

The lack of depth inside is the greatest concern for Janzen at this point.

“Our weakness is definitely the post, and I don’t mean anything against the girls, but we really only have two kids that are ready to play that position right now,” Janzen said. “We’re already recruiting some 5-11 and taller posts for next year and already have one committed.”

Janzen, who employs an up tempo pace of play, is hoping a quick start to the season sends notice to the rest of the ASC.

“I have a transition-based offense and we want to score quick, turn around and press, score quick, turn around and do it again,” Janzen said. “It’s fun to watch and it’s fun to coach that way, too. There’s game situations where we’ll have to slow down but I would rather have to pull them back than to speed them up. We want to play fast and get out and make a statement to the conference and let them know where we’re at.”