Expectations are running high for the Mountlake Terrace football team.

The Hawks are coming off a forgettable 2008 campaign that saw the team finish near the bottom of the Western Conference South Division standings.

That was the bad news. The good news was that many of Mountlake Terrace’s underclassmen saw plenty of action.

The Hawks return eight starters on defense and nine players who either started or saw significant playing time on offense.

“It was very common for us to start more sophomores than seniors,” Hawks coach Tony Umayam said of last season.

The mix between returning senior and junior starters is about even.

Mountlake Terrace’s backfield, however, is quite experienced with senior-to-be quarterback Brandyn Eckhart and senior-to-be running backs Casey Ellersick and Max Wicklander.

“We ended the season being able to do some good things offensively last year,” Umayam said. “The fact that we have so many players, they understand our system. It allows them to be able to play without having to think as much.”

Eckhart is expected to assume more of a leadership role.

“We’re going to expect him to take care of the football and just be able to engineer our offense and get it going,” Umayam said. “He’s a proven good athlete. I don’t have any problems if he tucks it in and runs the ball.”

The Hawks definitely want to establish their running game and Umayam is convinced he has the right personnel.

“Casey has a lot of varsity experience,” he said. “He’s been starting since halfway through his freshman year.”

Ellersick missed most of his sophomore year with a torn ACL.

The offensive line returns three starters and Umayam expects a couple of juniors will slide into the two openings.

Defensive standouts back include junior linebacker Mitch Haldane, senior defensive back Mikael Rasmussen and junior defensive lineman Lance Fernandez.

The Hawks just wrapped up their organized spring/summer with their annual team camp at Central Washington.

“Things went really well,” Umayam said. “We ended up taking 45 players … They run a good camp. We get in a lot of individual work and we’re able to scrimmage against some stiff competition.”

In addition to seeing how they stack up against such teams as Capital, Union and Woodinville, the camp also enabled Umayam and his staff to evaluate players to see who is ready to play varsity ball.

“We go over there for the opportunity to run our stuff against good competition,” Umayam said. “We’re able to get a look that our scout teams aren’t able to provide, which benefits our team a lot. To get away at camp brings the team together, which was important.”

Prior to team camp, the Hawks met at the high school for 10 practices. Now it’s up to the players to hit the weight room, which has become increasingly crowded.

“It (weight room participation) is really improved last year,” Umayam said. “We’re hoping to build on that this year.”