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Coming off seasons which ranged from outstanding to much-improved to winless, basketball programs around and bordering Linn County commence new campaigns either tonight or early this coming week.New head coaches occupy the end of the bench at every county (or nearby) high school except Mendon: Northwestern, where Lucas Hart (boys) and Blake Burns (girls) are back.Brookfield’s girls now are led by long-time Salisbury girls’ assistant Wiley Potter, Marceline’s boys – after a winless 2023-24 – by Derrick Holt, Meadville’s girls by Shawn Kiel after Steve Carvajal’s departure to Tipton, Linn County R-1’s boys by Cooper Ballinger, and Macon County R-4/Bucklin’s girls by Andy Busick of the MCR4 faculty.Brookfield, where Dray Starzl starts a third year in charge of the Bulldogs as the unretired (from coaching) Potter serves as a head coach for the first time, Meadville, and Northwestern will be the first county program’s to tip off 2024-25, the first two doing so at home tonight at 6 o’clock and the Mendon school’s squads visiting Orrick at the same hour.BHS will welcome Westran as the ’Dogs seem to elevate above last winter’s 9-17 mark and the Lady Bulldogs chase improvement from an 8-18 campaign.Meadville, its girls’ overwhelming ways of the past two seasons presumably now only a memory through graduation and the geographic shift of Carvajal and now-junior daughter Madison, will host Glasgow this evening.Eagles coach Ryan Young has a couple of key performers – highly-experienced juniors Mason Dennis and Donivan Schreckhise – back from last year’s 15-12 outfit.