The Macksville High School girls’ basketball team is not accustomed to winning, at least not in recent years.
The Mustangs went 9-10 last season and in the 2008-09 campaign, Macksville’s girls only won four games.
Part of the Mustangs success in the early 4-0 start can be attributed to a change at coaching staff during the offseason.
Kathryn McAllister was brought in as head coach and the Mustangs showed immediate improvement.
Now in her second year as Macksville girls head coach, McAllister is sitting on a team that is full of young talent and has won its first four games as well as the school’s first Larned Keady Basketball Classic girls’ championship.
“It is a big confidence booster,” McAllister said. “This group of girls hasn’t even been to a championship game before so just the Hoisington game was a huge step for us.”
McAllister is referring to the semifinal game against the Hoisington Lady Cardinals, in which the Mustangs found themselves down by nine points with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
Yasnaya Suseoff, a 5-foot-6 senior guard who got quality experience starting as a varsity player last season when Macksville had no seniors, began what could go down in Macksville’s history as the night of 3s.
Suseoff, who led Macksville with nine 3-pointers in the three classic games, hit two 3s in the final minutes to lead Macksville to an overtime win against Hoisington, 56-50.
Suseoff was joined by sophomore Keira Parr, a 5-6 guard, who drained four treys in the classic, including one in the final minutes of the game against Hoisington.
“I didn’t see it happening,” McAlister said of her team’s comeback. “I mean, we had set up plays for them to make it happen, but I was still very surprised they came back against such a good team.”
McAllister said that she just lucked into the talented shooters on her team.
“One of the officials asked me after the tournament how I got so many good shooter on my team,” McAllister said. “I told I’m just luck, I guess. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
 Ultimately, the Macksville girls are beginning to turn some heads in an area that has been dominated by a high school 15 miles down the road: St. John-Hudson.
The Lady Tigers have finished the last two seasons at 26-2 and won the Class 1A state championship in 2009.
The two schools are rivals, and in boys’ basketball, they are continually challenging each other for supremacy.
“(My team) has gained a lot of confidence over the last two years,” McAllister said. “They’ve played together now for a couple of years.”
The two schools aren’t slated to meet until Feb. 18.
With its hot start, it looks as though Macksville are preparing to challenge St. John, themselves.