Beginning their second season competing in the 3A KingCo conference, the Lake Washington boys basketball is ready. Ready to begin a season they hope will take them back to the state tournament.

“We’re excited to get going,” said senior captain Matt Staudacher. “We’ve all been friends for a long time.”

The team, has a talented senior group returning to the court, but also features more than just them.

“We have more depth,” said returning head coach Barry Johnson. “(We have) a couple of sophomores on the team this year that are going to see a significant amount of playing time.”

Early in the season, Johnson said the Kangs have been working on defense, which is also a strength for the team.

“Our defensive pressure. I think we’re all starting to buy into the team concept of defense and pressuring our opponents a little more,” said the coach.

The captains see it too, knowing it will only help them in games.

“We’ve been working on defense,” said captain Darien Nelson Henry. “We have a lot of guys who can score but getting stops are just as important so we can turn around and let them score.”

Now that Lake Washington has had a good look at the teams in the league, they know what it takes to succeed.

“We know what to expect as far the league goes,” said the coach. “We’ve seen everyone a couple of times and I think the biggest difference is going to be – the league we know, but going into districts when we have the Metro teams. Our district has the toughest teams. When you go into districts those are state championships right there for whoever gets out. We get five teams who go to state out of our district, but there are like nine teams right there that could go.”

To get there, the team knows it takes hard work.

“Honestly we want to win state,” said Nelson Henry. “We have the tools to win, we just have to do it. This is our year. It’s going to take a lot of dedication and we can’t get discouraged if we get down in a game. We have to stay positive because we can do it.”

For Johnson, the immediate goal this season is winning league. Making it happen however, is easier said then done in KingCo.

“Everybody being healthy. Keeping our composure going through adversity,” said Johnson of what it will take to be the top team in the league. “There are a lot of good teams in our league and our cross team – what I consider to be our rivals now – Juanita is playing really well. A lot of teams are ready to knock off a big guy. Last year we were supposed to be up there, we were ranked up there, but we weren’t mature enough yet. Now I think we’re ready for that challenge. We’re welcoming the challenge now.”

But, as captain Guy Lynott said, there’s no reason why they can’t do it.

“We have the potential, we won all the summer tournaments and there is no reason that we can’t,” he said.

The team, which opened the regular season last week, played league rival Juanita earlier in the week.

“Juanita, I love what Coach Witt is doing over there,” said Johnson. “A lot of energy. It’s fun to see them getting better so we can go head to head.”

The team will travel to Mount Si on Friday, Dec. 9 for an 8 p.m. game and will be back home on Tuesday, Dec. 13 against Sammamish before taking a couple weeks off for winter break.

Get a full schedule online at the KingCo website.