Hello from a new poster!

I'm going to try to keep this introduction/plea for help short, but I'm not entirely sure that's possible. I'm an amateur photographer who takes photos more for casual online display (facebook, myspace, etc.) than print. Basically, I work with the women's basketball team at the University of Maryland and I enjoy taking players for the players, who very much enjoy pictures of themselves. Haha.

I don't think I'm quite serious enough for an SLR (although I'm sad/disappointed/frustrated enough at what I'm getting from my new camera that I might make the leap sooner than I'd planned). I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ7 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz7/). The zoom is wonderful. The noise, however, is HORRIBLE.

I'm so uneducated in this that the camera has a manual mode, but I have no idea what settings to start with. I've been able to get decent quality in "Aperture Priority" mode, but can only capture ANY sort of action in "High Sensitivity" mode, but that is where the noise almost becomes unbearable (especially in regards to sweaty faces and those players of darker complexions). The most salvagable shots I can get are of situations when the players are standing still really... which is actually ok, but only if they're still of nice quality. (I have a Shutter Priority mode as well, but those pictures seem to turn out extremely dark, even with the flash on.)

I know I'm probably expecting too much from this camera, but I figured I'd at least ask for advice/suggestions on improvements using the equipment I have before dropping a bunch of money that I really shouldn't be spending on what is merely a hobby for me. I'm kind of even more frustrated by the fact that could take decent overview shots of the court with my basic HP Photosmart R717 camera last year and was able to crop out one section of action with better results than the new camera. Now, using the settings I've tried so far, the image looks crappy from far away and no better cropped out. I get the noise in the High Sensitivity shots regardless of motion or zoom.

(The first two photos were taken in High Sensitivity and are some of the better ones, the last was taken in Aperture Priority mode, I believe.)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/terps122/marist174x.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/terps122/uncg384x.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/terps122/xTEMPLE195.jpg

I know I've probably frustrated more than a few of you already with my sheer ignorance for what I'm trying to do. I appreciate you reading this far! Thanks for any suggestions you might provide.

*edit* Oh, also... there are a couple lenses floating around out there for this camera, but I'm not sure if they'd do anything to help with the problems I'm experiencing.

You can check an earlier post of mine about this. Basically, your only choice with this camera is ISO 400 with a direct flash. (not too kind to the players if even allowed) The on-camera flash won't do it. I tried a slave handle and external flash I got on e-bay which works better but still won't give the results you want. As has been said so many times here and many other places, to shoot sports in bad (indoor or outdoor at night) light the only choice is a DSLR with fast lenses at the minimum.