ONE training session this year with his full group and Glenn Clarke couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he heads into the 2017 women's SBL season expecting improvement from the Stirling Senators.

Clarke had his first season in charge of the Senators in 2016 and while there were good signs, he saw that they needed a vast improvement in leadership and at the point guard spot, and has no doubt he has helped solve those issues coming into 2017.

If he likes what he sees on the training floor, he knows what he is talking about as a triple-championship winning coach at the Willetton Tigers.

He isn’t sure how much his Senators team can improve on their 10th place finish last year now in 2017, but he sees all the signs there that they can at the very least be a playoff team with Amber Land and Emma Berryman receiving plenty more support.

Much of the reason for Clarke's excitement heading into 2017 is the recruitment of import pair Kisha Lee and Jasmine Martin.

That's not just because of what the pair can provide in terms of production, but also with the way they will help the young Senators players develop just from watching the way they act as professionals, by practicing against them and then playing alongside them.

Clarke was instantly buoyed by what he saw at that first training session with a full playing group last Tuesday. He is looking forward to seeing what they can do in the season-opener on Friday against the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre.

"Last Tuesday was our first session with pretty much everyone there and all the girls who are coming back from last year knew exactly what needed to be done, and I started to see good flow," Clarke said.

"The passing was excellent and it was just pleasing. I left that session with a smile on my face walking out with Donna (Cuperus) feeling like we're on the right track.

"The bar has been lifted at training now that the whole group is there and you can see the girls enjoying the outcomes that come with the way they are performing.

"For me it was like a sense of excitement because I felt back at the level of coaching girls who know how to do all the right things out there, and wins generally follow that."

The immediate impact that Martin and Lee had on the Senators on the practice floor was exciting for Clarke and he's excited to see how much better the likes of Caitlyn Jones, Maddison Hooper, Hannah Throns, Rebekah Throns and Barbara Salgado get from their presence.

"We just saw last Tuesday how much of an impact Jasmine and Kisha could have on the group and that was their first session together. It was instantaneous their impact, it was brilliant," he said.

"The passing was a lot more firm and more into the hands where it needs to be, they were all making good, crisp cuts and then the girls playing on Jasmine and Kisha were getting challenged at a higher level than they were before.

"Some of the younger kids like Caitlyn Jones got to realise that Jasmine gets in the weight room and does a lot of fitness work, and that's part of playing at this level. Those girls show our younger girls what the finished products look like."

One thing that Clarke felt his Senators team was sorely lacking last year was some leadership from the point guard spot and that’s where Martin comes in to fill that void.

The 23-year-old 5'7 guard out of Quinnipiac College is already showing Clarke that she is the exact type of player he was after.

"Last year we really lacked a point guard so this year we thought we'd go and look for a one-two guard and Jasmine arrived a couple of weeks ago now. She has already shown at training how good she will be for us," Clarke said.

"She ticks all the boxes that we thought and she's going to be a great addition to the team in regards to that one spot and switching into the two spot. She can score, she can get to the hole and she can defend. It's good that we've got a nice balance now there with the one and two spot."

Then there is Lee who can hold down one of the forward spots for Stirling coming off her WNBL season with the Perth Lynx. Clarke couldn’t be more impressed with her attitude coming into the SBL either.

"To be honest, Kisha came down to training last week for the first time and she was very impressive," he said.

"She can play the four spot with time at the three and I have been very impressed already with her attitude, but also her work ethic both on offence and defence."

One young player who has emerged over the pre-season to ensure she is in Clarke's plans for the season is Caitlyn Jones. While she doesn’t turn 16 until May 29, she is already showing she can play in the SBL in spurts and will only develop more from being around the women.

"We played Caitlyn in the Blitz and when she first arrived when we still had all our development players coming through, Donna and I just saw something about her that made us think she could play a role for us. Because I play such a transition style of game, Caitlyn loves that and it suits her perfectly," he said.

"In some of the Blitz games for a kid of her age she did some really special things. She is going to be good and we'll keep matching her up against Jasmine at training so she continues to learn and develop every session. We see her playing some minutes for us this year to give the other girls a rest and allow us to keep on running."

Clarke couldn’t have expected any more out of Land last season as she battled against all odds at times to keep the Senators competitive the longer the season went on.

He is now happy to have found more help for her this year and to have some more leadership as well.

"One of the major things that happened at the end of last year was that we had a lot of injuries and then we had a little bit of bad luck over those last three or four weeks," he said.

"But after having had one year with the girls now I feel like I can start to build around the talent we have that's leftover. I know what the end product is now of what they can and can't do so that lets me build the necessary support around them to make us a lot more successful this year."

Clarke now has no doubt that coach and players alike will be a lot better together second year at it in 2017.

"Every time a new coach comes along they have new techniques and new ways of doing offence and defence, and the girls wanted to make a change coming into last year and so did the club," Clarke said.

"It was more about getting a common ground between both parties in regards to doing what we need to do to be successful. Last year we had some games where we lost by one and three points, and we had a lot of injuries.

"Our captain Tegan Walker couldn’t get out there and it just didn’t work from a leadership perspective for us so that was hard. To the credit of the girls, they did pretty well and I was pretty happy with how they had a never say die attitude, but now that they've had a year with me and they know what we run, we should click a lot better."

Photo by Vikki Hile