The North Catholic girls basketball team bought custom T-shirts for the 2002-03 season and listed their goals for the year.
They wrote them on a bull's-eye.
Moon is the defending WPIAL Class AAA champion, but runner-up North Catholic is everyone's favorite to win its first title since the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s.
North Catholic hasn't won a WPIAL crown since 1995, a disturbing drought for a team that used to collect gold medals like Christmas ornaments.
But that could change.
The Trojanettes return eight of their top players from last year's 24-5 WPIAL Class AAA runner-up.
"We still have so much work to do," star guard Rachel Frederick said. "But I think we're ready."
North Catholic and Moon (26-3), the top two teams in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review WPIAL Class AAA rankings, were moved into the same section in the off-season realignments.
The Section 4-AAA rematches of last year's WPIAL title game are scheduled for Jan. 9 at Moon and Feb. 7 at North Catholic.
Frederick remembers the Moon fans chanting "overrated, overrated" when No. 2 Moon beat top-seeded North Catholic, 54-44, at Robert Morris University for the WPIAL Class AAA title.
"That didn't make me happy," Frederick said.
No. 3 Valley features Gerria Ballard and 5-10 Amanda Booker. No. 4 Ambridge, which played in the WPIAL Class AAAA title game two years ago, has dropped into Class AAA. West Mifflin, another Section 4-AAA team, is ranked No. 5.
North Catholic will be tested in the opening game of the 2002-03, when its meet defending WPIAL Class A champion Clairton and 6-foot all-state forward Kamela Gissendanner in the first round of the Nothing But the Best tournament at CCAC-South.
Gissendanner, a North Carolina State recruit, and Frederick, one of the top sophomores in the state, have never played against each other on any level.
"She is one of the greatest players in Pennsylvania and playing against her is going to be kind of cool," she said.
Frederick averaged 14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game and spent the off-season playing Junior AAU competition across the nation. The 5-10 sophomore guard is so good that former Trojanettes coach Don Barth told coach Molly Larkin-Rottmann last year the only way to protect her North Catholic all-time scoring record of 1,874 points was to avoid playing Frederick as a freshman. Rottmann, who starred at North Catholic in the late '80s, figures the record can fall.
Moon has one of the WPIAL's best big girls, 6-1 senior forward Erin Wigley and guard Nia Capuano. Coach Tom Szczepankowski's team graduated point guard Erin Smith. They will turn to Liz Martin, a 5-4 sophomore. Martin's teammates call her "Mouse" because she runs all over the place.
"She's probably the quickest person I've ever seen in my life," Capuano said. "She's also a good player. She won't see North Catholic and get rattled. She'll get excited."
North Catholic and Moon await their regular season games. North Catholic moved Senior Night so it wouldn't conflict with the home finale, Feb. 7 against Moon.
"No one thinks we can do it this year and that gives us more incentive," Capuano said. "We have the bull's-eye on our chest because we did win the WPIAL."
Top five teams
1. North Catholic - 24-5
2. Moon - 26-3
3. Valley - 22-4
4. Ambridge - 22-3
5. West Mifflin - 6-18
Top 10 players
Gerria Ballard, 5-8, Sr., G, Valley
Kelly Calderone, 5-7, Sr., G, Ambridge
Nia Capuano, 5-10, Jr., G, Moon
Rachel Frederick, 5-10, So., G, North Catholic
Dani Hamilton, 5-10, Sr., G, Blackhawk
Nadene Kotuby, 5-6, Sr., G, Mohawk
Kami Mazar, G, 5-5, So. West Allegheny
Andrea Vargo, 5-6, Sr., G, West Mifflin
Erin Wigley, 6-1, Sr., F, Moon
Jessica Wolfson, 5-8, So., G/F, Hampton
