SISTERS — The same word was used by Jerin Say and ChaCha Ramirez to describe the first games for the Madras High girls basketball team this season.

“It has been a roller coaster,” said both the White Buffaloes’ coach and returning senior.

A season after capturing the Tri-Valley Conference title and playing in Class 4A Showcase — which served as the classification’s state tournament — with a senior-laden team, Madras is going through the rise and fall of figuring out roles, rotations and lineups in the early stages of the season.

Through six games, Madras has as many wins — three — as it does losses. But the season is still young and league play does not start until the middle of January.

“We lost a lot of players from last year. We are a young and inexperienced team but we have a lot of skill,” said Say. “We have had some growing pains that have come with a team like this, but all in all, they are doing good.”

Ramirez, who has been on the varsity squad for three years now, is seeing steady improvement from the inexperienced group through the first month of the season.

“Everyone is still learning the basics and we aren’t as fundamentally sound as we could be,” she said. “I feel like we are making progress every game. But we haven’t had the same starting five. We are kind of all over the place. We are still looking for our leadership roles and where people fit the best.”

There is a familiar theme in the first three White Buffalo losses thus far — all have come against either 6A or 5A programs. Madras is 2-0 against 4A teams and has a win against 5A Redmond, which could explain why it is still considered a top-10 team in the most recent OSAA coaches poll despite its three losses.

“We like playing up in classifications, playing teams that are going to make us better,” said Say. “When we play in our classification, having played tougher competition helps us out and builds that confidence.”

Since Say took over as coach of the program in the 2018-19 season, Madras has been one of Tri-Valley’s premier teams by winning 23 of 30 league games, which included one first-place finish in the season last spring.

With a goal of not surrendering the league title, the White Buffaloes will have a different look this season. They will rely more on Ramirez, who has emerged as the team leader, as well as a group of rising sophomores in Rylan Davis, Sasha Esquiro and Talise Wapsheli, who contributed a year ago.

“It was good for them as freshmen to work with the older girls last year and see what it is like and what type of competitiveness you need to bring,” said Say.

“We are hoping that they can carry that for the next three years.”

For Ramirez, stepping into the leadership role is something that she is more than thrilled to tackle.

“I have started taking more shots that I usually wouldn’t take, guarding taller players, taking on teams’ star point guards,” said Ramirez.

“I feel confident that I can do my part in helping the team. I love it now because having fun and winning, picking people up in general makes me happy.”

“We lost a lot of players from last year. We are a young and inexperienced team but we have a lot of skill. We have had some growing pains that have come with a team like this, but all in all, they are doing good.”

— Jerin Say, Madras girls basketball coach