KINGSTON — The girls basketball team at Kingston Junior High School has gotten bigger — but not just in the number of players it has on the roster.

“Last year, I was a post,” said ninth grader and Kingston hoopster Kelsey Dowers. “This year, I’m a guard.”

Added height combined with a deeper line-up — 14 girls on the varsity roster and 15 on the JV — will no doubt improve the Kingston team, which fared at seven wins and five losses in 2003.

But the focus, as usual, with coach Tony Chisholm’s team, is not necessarily on increasing the wins.

“It’s not about the winning,” Chisholm said. “We practice to win but my job is to prepare them for the next level.”

With that preparation comes Chisholm’s famous toolbox analogy — his formula to ensure the fundamentals of basketball are learned by all of his players.

“You put the tools in the toolbox,” Chisholm said. “The winning is the bonus.”

Chisholm is also in transition from finishing up with the Cavaliers boys’ team to starting with the girls. There are a few differences, Chisholm noted, but much of what he does for both teams is largely the same.

“With girls, you have to motivate them a little more,” Chisholm said. “They tend to be friendlier and not as aggressive — but everything else is the same — it all comes down to the game of basketball.”

Balance is the name of the game for this year’s team, Chisholm said.

“We need to play an up-tempo game but also know how to slow it down,” he explained.

Dowers, in her final year at KJH, said she hopes to see the team not just be above .500 — but go the season without a loss.

“A lot of us are really pushing hard this year,” Dowers said. “I think it’d be nice to go undefeated.”

Coach Chisholm’s larger plan is to continue growing his program in Kingston, with an emphasis on bringing up the younger players.

“(Junior varsity) Coach Tim French and I have been building a program here and we figured let’s go for the younger girls,” Chisholm remarked. “They’re the future of North Kitsap basketball.”

One of those younger players is seventh grader Erin Nicol, a recent transfer from Christ the King Academy in Poulsbo. Nicol, often the leading scorer in games for CKA, said she is excited to be playing for Chisholm.

“(Coach Chisholm) expects the best from you — and you can’t slack off,” Nicol said.

Nicol added that she’s excited for a season full of potential.

“I think we should be really good this year,” Nicol said. “But we’ll have to work really hard in practice.”