Early this fall Johanna Ghiringehlli insisted she preferred basketball to soccer. It was hard to believe, watching the speedy forward score goals for the Hampden Academy girls soccer team. After all, Ghiringehlli is an exchange student from Paraguay, and don’t they prefer soccer in South America?

Well, it appears Ghiringehlli may have been on to something.

“We feel like we struck gold,” Broncos coach Ben Greenlaw said before a recent practice. “She can shoot the ‘3’, she’s our fastest player, she really attacks the basket as well as anybody we have. She makes us a lot better and we’re very fortunate to have her.”

Ghiringehlli’s presence will be a huge help to a team that lost two starters, including one of the top post players in Eastern Maine.

Hampden’s situation seems to be one that has echoed across Eastern Maine Class A (although the Broncs are probably the only team with an exchange student from Paraguay).

Many of the top squads lost significant chunks of their lineups to graduation, but should make seamless transitions with the players who remain or are coming in.

Nothing is certain, not even for the two squads that made it to the 2003 Eastern Maine Class A final.

Still, the experience and talent remaining for the Nokomis Warriors of Newport and the Cony Rams of Augusta make them contenders, along with teams like Hampden Academy, Skowhegan, and Mount Ararat of Topsham.

The rest of Hampden’s starting lineup will feature point guard Kim Stephenson (one of the top soccer players in the state), guard Cheryl Morris and 6-footers Jill Beal and Tanna Ross. Ghiringehlli, who is about 5-8, will be used as an off-guard because she can handle the ball in addition to everything else.

Stephenson, Morris and Beal all started last year. Ross is a freshman.

“She can shoot it a little so we’ll kind of use her as a guard-forward,” Greenlaw said. “She’ll be tough. We feel like she can use her as a post defender and a guard defender. She’s pretty quick. She brings a lot to the table for us.”

Greenlaw said Beal has looked strong early. Stephenson will again be responsible for guarding the opposition’s ball-handler, a situation she was successful with last year.

“We feel like with what we have and some of the players we have coming in, we’re going to be fairly competitive,” Greenlaw said.

Cony coach Paul Vachon said things are certainly different this year. Although he’s got one of the top players in Maine on his roster, he also has a few new faces to the lineup. That’s what happens when you graduate one of the best backcourts in the state.

“It’s back to teaching,” he said. “It’s new and fun again.”

The Rams will look a bit different on offense this year. First of all, they will go to 6-1 junior center Katie Rollins, who is a Division-I prospect.

“We’ll go inside 90 percent of the time, where last year we played much more of an inside-outside game,” Vachon said. “Katie’s going to get the ball a lot more. Teams can choose to double-team her or not, so we’ll see.”

That’s provided Rollins can stay out of foul trouble, which hurt last year in the Eastern Maine final against Nokomis.

“I just think if she’s allowed to play she’ll be hard to stop,” Vachon said. “We have to keep her out of foul trouble, keep her in the game, and she can control things.”

With Karen Sirois graduated, Briiana Rende will take over the point guard role. Rende was an off-guard last year but could have played the point if not for Sirois’ presence.

Guard-forward Nattie Nimon and guard Amanda Mason, who both came off the bench last year, will start along with 6-1 freshman Cassie Cooper.

Rende’s sister Maggie and freshman Heather Pratt will be two of the first players off the bench.

The Rams aren’t as deep or quick overall as they were last year, Vachon conceded, but Cony will stick to its always stellar man-to-man defense.

Coach Tom Tennett’s Bangor girls struggled a bit last year, but the Rams should be much better this year now that several players have a season of experience under their belts. Bangor had a lot of different players playing a lot of minutes and return three regular starters, plus others who started at different times of the season.

Laura Clarke, Caroline Weymouth, Erin Porter and Ilyse Angst should be among the Rams’ top guards. Bangor will look to 6-footers Alyssa Ogden and Kelsey Curtis in the post.

Skowhegan, Gardiner and Mount Ararat are also considered to be contenders in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

The Indians lost three starters and are young this year, but Nicole Paradis and Kala Thompson, who were promising freshman starters last season – Paradis had a particularly impressive tournament – return to the team.

Gardiner coach Heath Cowan started three freshmen – Lynsey Seymour, Becky Dixon and Allyce Pepin – at times last year, and the Tigers went 6-1 to start the season. Dixon, a 5-10 forward, is considered one of the top young players in the KVAC. Cowan’s team should see continued improvement this season.

Mount Ararat lost one starter, but returns 6-0 center Erin Johnson and 5-9 guard Erika Stupinski, who is considered to be one of the most athletic girls in the state. Guard Michelle Sirois and 5-11 forward Miranda Rogers also started last year.

Nokomis won its second Eastern Maine title in three years last year, but with all five starters graduated it will be a tougher road for the Warriors. Still, several key bench players return this year. Among those are guards Amy Paradis and Michelle Barden, and twin forwards Alyssa and Ashley Bragdon, who are 5-10 sophomores.