ORRVILLE — The Keith girls will take the court Friday for the first time since winning the class 1A championship in February.

Although they’ll be wearing their familiar blue and gold uniforms, for the first time, this group of Bears will take the court as defending state champions. This year they expect to get every opponent’s best shot — starting with rival Selma on Friday night.

However, this season started a long time ago for Keith, who got back to work quickly after defeating Spring Garden for the state championship.

“Even after the last game they played last year, they continued to work,” said Keith head coach Cecil Williams. “They came in with the mindset that we have to do better than last year because we know that everybody is going to try to give us their best game.”

There are reminders of what the Bears’ accomplished everywhere. A banner hangs on the school’s gym recognizing the championship and the players received championship rings during the offseason.

A parade was even held in Orrville, giving Bears’ fans a chance to welcome back the team back from Birmingham and to celebrate.

It was a dream season — the type of season the majority of high schoolers don’t get to experience. However, the Bears aren’t satisfied.

With almost every player returning from last season, Keith has its sights set on winning back-to-back state championships for the first time in school history.

“They don’t want anybody else to take that title from them,” Williams said. “They don’t want to lose. That’s their biggest motivation — wanting to do what they did last year because they enjoyed everything that came along with it. “

Keith only had two players graduate last year — forwards Dasheena Thomas and Ty’Ceayonna Murray. Everybody else, including class 1A player of the year finalist Harriet Winchester, forward Zykia Pettway and guard Shatavia Moore — the team’s leading scorers last season — are back.

Anther returning starter, sophomore Ambreya Snow, said Williams is finding ways to keep the team motivated going into 2015.

“He continues to tell us to keep our mind focused, play hard in everything that we do even in practice and when it’s time for games, we’ll be ready,” Snow said.

Keith couldn’t start 2015 with much more of a challenge.

Selma qualified for the 6A quarterfinals last year and returns nearly its entire roster as well.

The Bears and Saints will take the court at approximately 6 p.m., immediately following the junior varsity boys game set for 5 p.m. The game will be played at Selma High School and will be followed by the varsity boys contest.