Most WSU student-athletes will tell you that preparing to win during the regular season begins in the offseason. It’s those extra reps in the weight room, those last few laps on the track or those baskets they make on their own, when no one is watching, that enable the athletes to shine when all eyes are on them.

For women’s basketball seniors Tia Presley and Shalie Dheensaw, the work starts now. Their summer workouts begin at approximately 6:45 a.m. They hit the track first, followed by the weight room, before rehabbing to finish training in the afternoon.

Dheensaw ventures off to her summer job at the Student Recreation Center (SRC) afterward, while Presley’s offseason is slightly more relaxed. After the morning workouts, the day is hers to tan by the pool and work on her online course before taking a late night trip to the gym for some solo shooting practice.

“That’s my life right now,” Presley said. “And it’s great.”

But it hasn’t been all fun in the sun for the 5-foot-11 shooting guard.

While most of her squad enjoyed a six-week summer vacation, Presley was in Pullman working on her game in hopes of expanding on the team-best 19 points per game she averaged last season. This was good enough to reach fifth in the conference in what was her first fully healthy season at WSU.

“I think the preparation this summer is just a little bit more intense that it has been in the past,” she said. “With such a good season last year, we’re just looking to build on that because the expectations have become higher. We just know as individuals we need to get better, and as a team we need to get better, so we’re trying to prepare the young girls early and get things rolling.”

The underdog narrative with which they entered the season is no more, and Presley is well aware she doesn’t need to be as effective as she was last season. She needs to be better.

“I went the whole season playing the way I was, and I was really successful, but I need to just keep getting better and keep adding stuff to my game to make it tougher on other teams,” she said. “Whatever I can do to help my team reach our goals, I have to work on that. I got to be prepared to know that people know what my moves are, and know what I like to do, and what type of player I am.”

Dheensaw, a 6-foot-4 center, exploded onto the scene as well, posting career-high averages in points and rebounds in what was one of the tougher conferences in the country. She enters this season with new confidence, especially after going toe-to-toe with some of the best players in the country, including Pac-12 Player of the Year Chiney Ogwumike, who went on to become the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.

Their efforts, along with those of the rest of the team, have the community finally doing something the Cougar women have been doing for years: believing. But despite the rejuvenated spirit of the fans, their storybook season didn’t quite end happily ever after.

With every workout, every lifting session and every team bonding activity, the Cougars’ focus has been on representing the university and its athletic program well. But there’s another school on the group’s mind as it burns calories each morning under the scorching Pullman sun: Montana. It was a 90-78 first-round loss to the Grizzlies in the WNIT that forced the clock to strike midnight on the Cougars’ Cinderella season.

“We were pissed,” Dheensaw said while describing the team’s postgame emotions.

Even now the loss still stings, but the Cougars have recognized the game as a learning experience, she said. As it turns out, the team needed that punch in the mouth to learn just how hard other teams can hit when players leave their guard down.

“When we want to take a play off, when we want to take a day off, we’re going to remember that game and we’re going to remember what happened and we’re not going to end that way this year,” Dheensaw said.

With former WSU forward Sage Romberg signing a pro contract to play in Spain, Dheensaw and Presley enter their farewell tour with new professional aspirations and new leadership roles. Both of the four-year veterans know they need to walk the walk and talk the talk in front of the seven incoming freshmen if they’re going to have any shot at expanding on last season.

Presley has no problem leading by example as her performance last season was half the battle. She knows her teammates will see her come in every day and work hard, then be inclined to mimic her behavior. She knows, however, that simply putting forth the physical effort is only part of the job description.

“I’m still working on being verbal. That’s just not normally my thing when I’m out there,” she said. “I’ve been talkative during workouts and trying to stay positive with the girls because I know it’s hard as a freshman – I remember. I’m just trying to encourage the girls and gain their trust, so when the season comes around they can look to me to be a leader.”

Having climbed their way from the bottom of the conference to become a reckoning force, these Cougars now see the sky as the limit.

The road there, Presley said, will include one very confident preseason prediction: “We’re going to win the NCAA Tournament.”