Judging by the excitement at Sting Media Day on Monday, Charlotte is ready to move past last year's hard-luck season and on to bigger and better things in 2006.

“Last year was last year -- we’re looking forward now and trying to get this team back on the winning track,” forward/guard Sheri Sam said. “Everybody has entered camp looking to prove that last year was a fluke, but we have to get the job done on the court.”

Charlotte enters its 10th season in the WNBA with renewed optimism, looking to put last year’s 6-28 finish behind it and build on the winning attitude Head Coach Muggsy Bogues tried to instill in his team when he was given the reigns last year with 10 games remaining in the regular season.

“Things are a lot different entering this season than they were last year,” Bogues said. “Last year when I came in, I was just trying to instill a sense of confidence back into our players and go through a feeling-out process with the players we had on this team. I’m looking forward to starting the season with the team, implementing our system early and letting the team go out and have fun playing basketball.”

Much of that fun will come on the run, as evident by Bogues’ 10 games at the helm last season, where he increased the tempo of Charlotte’s offense and saw the Sting raise their scoring average from 59.4 points to 66.9 points while posting a 3-7 record to close the season.

“I wanted to see what this team had (at the end of last season), and wanted to see what each individual would give me,” Bogues said. “I liked what I saw in our core group of players. They showed me a lot. Not one of them ever quit on us and kept giving it everything they had regardless of the situation we were facing.”

Charlotte’s core group consists of point guard Helen Darling, Sam, forward/center Tangela Smith and center Tammy Sutton-Brown – all of whom were starters for the Sting under Bogues – and guard Allison Feaster, who returns after missing the last 11 games in 2005 due to her pregnancy.

What the players and their coach seem to be looking forward to the most is the growth of this core group, considering they will be playing in just their second year together on the court. Of the five, Sutton-Brown and Feaster were the only two on the Sting’s roster two years ago.

“Last year I think it took us a little time to get adjusted playing together,” Sam said. “This year we come into camp knowing each other better both on and off the court, and that is only going to make us better. We know what to expect of each other and know how to use all of our strengths and weaknesses to our advantage out there now.”

However, these four won’t be the only ones familiar with Bogues system. Last year’s top pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft, center Janel McCarville, returns looking to improve upon her rookie campaign, while guards Kelly Mazzante and Caity Matter and forward Ayana Walker played with Charlotte last season and add depth to the roster.

However, the Sting opened training camp without Sutton-Brown, Mazzante and Walker, who are all fulfilling their obligations playing overseas.

One thing everyone appeared to be excited about at Media Day was the return of Feaster. Following the birth of her daughter, Sarah, on February 3, the eight-year veteran and franchise leader in three-pointers is eager to get on the court and get things going in Bogues’ run-and-gun style of offense.

“I feel pretty good,” she said. “It’s taken some time to get myself back into playing shape, but I’m ready to go now and excited to get into this offense and see what I can do.”

Feaster isn’t the only one who will get the chance to inject more life into Charlotte’s offense. The team also acquired some key pieces in the 2006 WNBA draft, selecting Duke guard Monique Currie and Tennessee center Tye’sha Fluker with the No. 3 and No. 10 overall picks in the first round and adding point guard LaToya Bond with the 27th overall pick.

“We could not have been happier with the pieces we added in the draft,” Bogues said. “We feel that we were able to acquire some young, talented players who were able to fill some voids for us and provide us with more depth. They’ve looked pretty good in the first two days, but we’re not going to put any undue pressure on them to play right away. We’ll let them work at a comfortable pace to get things figured out.”

Guards Tasha Butts, Alexis Kendrick and Edwige Lawson, forwards Ezria Parsons and Stacey Thomas and center Yelena Leuchanka are also in camp with the Sting, hoping to earn a spot on the roster when the season opens at 6:00 p.m. on May 20 against the Chicago Sky at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

“As a team we definitely want to do better than we did last year,” Smith said. “We have a great mix of players with veterans and younger players and have high expectations for ourselves. We had a rough season last year, but we just have to get that out of our minds. We have a new coach and a new facility, so we just first want to start with a turnaround, get a lot more wins and go from there.”