Stanwood girls hoops team led by its seven inseparable seniors

If it seems like the Stanwood girls basketball team is well prepared it's because it is.

While practices for this season officially began Nov. 14, seven members of the team began playing together a while ago in preparation for this season.

Eight years to be exact.

The seven seniors on this year's Spartans squad have been playing together since they were in the fifth grade, leading many to speculate that one day they may be the ones to reinvigorate the Spartans basketball program. It looks like that day has come.

Serena Duncan, Samantha Kelleigh, Renee Lucero, Brenda Bingham, Tarah Murphy, Jade Borseth and Paisley Heckman are participating in their last high school basketball season ever. The seven, making up the core of the Spartans team that has started the season 10-1 in the Wesco North record and 16-1 overall, have made the most of it. They are currently tied with Lake Stevens for first place in the North.

"This is kind of the core -- when you look at a one-loss record -- that's turned the program around," said Stanwood head coach Dennis Kloke.

Unsurprisingly, when a group of people play together for a long time, they get a good feel for what their teammate is going to do on the court. That intuition, combined with the chemistry the seven girls share, has led to a successful senior year.

"It is the familiarity," Duncan said. "We've been playing together for so long, we don't really have to communicate half the time. We just know what each other's going to do."

Heckman says each player has a role on the team. For example, Murphy "keeps it fun and loose before the game," Lucero "always knows what she's talking about" and Bingham "always works hard."

"Rebounding is my biggest role," Heckman said. "And then being clear headed. I'm usually the one that's trying to calm people down if they make a mistake."

Together they prove the old saying about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

"I've thought about it," Duncan said. "I'm not an amazing basketball player. I'm not a starter but I am a piece of the puzzle."

Some of the girls jumped right to varsity as freshmen, while a few others worked their way onto the squad as sophomores. Kloke has the varsity play against the junior varsity in practice, which he says challenges both squads to continuously elevate their game.

Once the super seven were all on the varsity team, Kloke knew he had something special.

"Really the turning point of our senior class was two summers ago," Kloke said. "We played at a high school tournament in Phoenix. The girls began to realize how good they could be. From that point on, their individual expectations have grown enormously."

That is evident talking to the girls, who make the goal for their senior season very clear.

"I'm hoping we make it to state," Borseth said. "That's been a goal of ours ever since we can remember."

Duncan expands: "It would be a cherry on top of our lives. It's something that we've all been talking about and yearning for. That state game. Even just to go to state we'll be crying out of joy. We want it and we want it bad."

The girls, who have been hearing for a while now that they would put Stanwood on the high school basketball map when they arrived, came close last season, but lost in the last district game they played.

There was a "newness" and unfamiliarity during last year's district tournament, according to Kloke. And, while the Spartans fell one game short, it did help the team in at least one way going into this season.

"Motivation for the next year," Borseth said.

Looks like it worked.

The Spartans only loss this season has come against Lake Stevens, where Stanwood lost 61-52 on Dec. 9. Fittingly, the Vikings only loss this season came at Stanwood, 60-56, on Jan. 25.

According to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association -- and the placards on the wall of Stanwood's gymnasium -- Stanwood hasn't been to the tournament since 1998, when it was a 3A school. The best the Spartans have ever placed in the state tournament was seventh, in 1993 and 1995.

While the girls attend a 4A school now, that will not be the case next season. Recently it was announced there would be reclassification throughout Wesco, and, due to enrollment figures, this is the first and (at least for a while) last chance at participating in the 4A state tournament.

Still, even with all they've accomplished this season, the seniors feel a little bit of pressure from the outside.

"Yeah, we do," Duncan said. "We try not to show it but we do. Going to state has been so expected -- it was even expected last year. This year more than ever. There's the pressure, we know it's there. We've gotten a lot better at handling it."

Once the girls leave, Stanwood will drop back to 3A, but Kloke isn't worried that the team will drop in its level of play very much. Even though they'll be gone, he may have his seven seniors to thank for that.

"Our turnouts are high energy. We are very, very fortunate that we have a group behind them of 10th graders that are pretty athletic," Kloke said. "We have 18 young ladies that make up our varsity and JV and they compete daily. Our 10th graders can hold their own against the seniors. That pushes the seniors to get better and obviously pushes the younger kids to improve."

Heckman, the tallest of the group at 6-0, says that the whole team works well together. The Spartans aren't divided at practice between sophomores and seniors.

"We always try to include everybody," Heckman said. "We know we're not gonna be there forever, and as soon as we leave we know they're going to have to take over the reins."

The Spartans JV squad looks like it may be up to the challenge. They have gone undefeated this season, currently 17-0. Not only do the younger Spartans win, but they win big, with a 36-point average margin of victory. A strong crop of sophomores along with junior post Rachel Swartz and freshman post Tristan Murphy, Tarah's younger sister, has Stanwood's future looking bright.

Still, Kloke doesn't want to get too carried away with expectations.

"I don't know if anybody ever has a dynasty because things can change quickly … but there is good talent all the way down in our program," Kloke said.

Currently, the seven girls are trying to enjoy their senior year as much as possible, because they know it won't last forever. It looks like the girls' streak of playing together is going to come to an end after this basketball season.

"I try not to think about it now, but with Senior Night coming up it's like, 'This is gonna be so depressing,'" said Borseth, who wants to go to a four-year university and get a nursing degree. "I don't think about that. It's not here yet. Just enjoy the time we have together playing."

Heckman, who also wants to major in nursing at a university in Washington, also tries to make the most of the remaining time with her friends.

"This is the last season we'll ever play together," she said. "It's all about lasts. Including the last big game we're gonna have."

The Spartans hope that last big game takes place during the first week of March at the Tacoma Dome.

"I think we'll go to state," said Duncan, who's looking at a couple interesting careers relating to business and finance or the culinary arts. "I can't predict the future but I think we can get there. I know we can beat some teams up there. We're pretty good. I think we can do it."

Duncan's coach agrees.

"In all honesty I feel we have the capabilities of getting into districts, and moving on from districts into the regionals," Kloke said. "But again, after saying that we've gotta do it. You don't get there just because you want to."

Kloke began coaching Stanwood eight years ago, while his daughter was on the team. He had previously coached boys basketball at Marysville Pilchuck and Anacortes. He coached some successful MP teams in the 1970s that finished fifth and seventh at state.

"I've coached a long time and there's been two groups of teams, one boys and one girls, that have stood out to me," Kloke said. "This is the girls team. This team stands out to me because of the personalities of the team, and how hard they work. It has been a real pleasure to be involved with these ladies."

Whatever happens, it's the last chapter of a story that has seen the girls become more than just teammates.

"They're pretty much just like family at this point," Borseth said.