Their goal is in sight

Published 2:28 pm Monday, January 19, 2009

ARLINGTON — Taking things one step at a time is paying off for the Arlington girls basketball team.

All alone in second place in the Western Conference North with a 5-2 division record, the Eagles are 8-3 overall and already have more league wins than the past two seasons combined.

“Our goal is to make (the district playoffs),” Arlington head coach Nathan Davis said. “Every girl wants to play at state, but if we start with districts, break it down into little parts and see where we go.”

The Eagles made it to districts the past two seasons but that was in Class 3A. All five 3A Wesco teams, including the 4-12 (2007-08) and 0-16 (2006-07) Eagles, advanced to the postseason.

This season Arlington is Class 4A and the Eagles will have to earn their way into the postseason by finishing as one of the top four of the eight 4A schools in the Wesco North.

A long-time assistant and junior-varsity coach, Davis is in his third year as the Eagles head coach. With just three seniors and one freshman, Davis sees his six juniors as the team’s core.

“The junior class has been the heart and soul of everything,” Davis said. “They’re the ones I started with … we had an awesome group of freshman (come in my first year).”

For senior guard Kyra Prause, a four-year varsity player and leading scorer (12.9 points per game), the Eagles are demonstrating more maturity and athletic ability this season.

“Last year was more like our practice year, getting to know and trust each other,” said Prause, one of three co-captains. “My freshman and sophomore years, I didn’t have people to fall back on. It was like, “Just score, Kyra,’ This year, we have others stepping up.”

One of those is junior point guard Quinn Kesselring, who is second on the team in scoring at 12.1 points per game. Kesselring’s play has steadily improved, Davis said, and “she’s starting to average more assists and get more turnovers — that’s how you know she’s getting it.”

Both Kesselring and Davis were quick to praise the leadership and work ethic of Prause, who Kesselring said “keeps us on track. She works really hard in practice, so everyone wants to step it up to her level.”

Davis also singled out for praise senior guard Sheryl Scheppele — “our guard play has led us along,” said the coach — and junior Alexa Weber, who has made solid contributions off the bench.

“We’re just trying to get to district playoffs,” Kesselring said. “I don’t want to get my hopes up too high … I take it each game at a time.”

The Eagles have already checked off a pair of items on their checklist: winning away from home and being competitive against the division’s top team.

Arlington has road victories against Stanwood and Oak Harbor and although its trip to Snohomish was a 60-38 loss, Davis felt his team opened some eyes playing the Panthers.

“Some (Wesco North) coaches were there to scout us and they came up to me and said ‘Hey, you competed with them,’” Davis said. “That’s the goal — you want to get to the postseason you have to play with (Snohomish). They’re a class program.”

It was during their 3A playoff appearances that the Eagles began to show flashes of their current success. Last season Arlington was 2-2 and missed reaching the winner-to-state, runner-up game due to a 53-37 loss to Shorecrest.

“Getting to play all those games was huge for the kids,” Davis said. “They ended up playing 26 games both years; that was sweet.”

Despite missing the state playoffs last season, Prause said the Eagles successful playoff run was important “to help us go more positively into this year as a winning team.”

“We have goal sheets for every game — game plans,” Prause said. “At the top it says ‘Qualify for districts’ as our goal. We don’t want to get too far ahead.”