For the second straight year, the Oak Harbor select eighth-grade boys basketball team qualified for the state middle school championships. This year, the club is looking for a better outcome.

The eighth-graders are one of three Oak Harbor teams that earned a berth in the state tournament this weekend in Spokane. They will be joined by the seventh- and fifth-grade squads.

The eighth-graders won only one of four games in the 2017 state tournament. This time around, the expectations are higher.

Coach Justin Ronning said the goal at state is “to win our bracket.”

“We’ve bonded,” eighth-grader Gage McLeod said. “We are a stronger team this year; we know each other better and how everyone functions.”

“We have all grown as players,” John Leete added. “We are more mature.”

Ronning noted that his team is peaking at the right time. The club finished third in the Skagit-Whatcom-Island-Snohomish Hoop (SWISH) league based out of Mount Vernon with a 6-3 record (19-9 overall), then went undefeated in the league tournament to claim the state berth.

In the semifinals of the SWISH tournament, Oak Harbor beat the Bellingham Basketball Academy, a team that defeated Oak Harbor twice during the regular season. In the finals, Oak Harbor upset undefeated Lake Stevens.

“This team dealt with a lot of illness and injuries to starters and battled through the best they could,” Ronning said. “They gave full effort every game; even when outmatched by size or talent, nobody outplayed their effort.

“We went into the league tournament with seven guys, and the boys went out and played their best basketball they have played in five years.”

The uptick in the tournament was because Oak Harbor had “more energy,” Ethan Noble said. “Our defense was more of a factor.”

Leete and McLeod agreed that Oak Harbor’s defense was a key, with McLeod adding that the offense did a better job “pushing the ball up the floor” to create stronger scoring opportunities.

The Oak Harbor seventh-grade team also qualified for state last year and earned a return trip by winning both the SWISH regular season and tournament titles.

“The boys worked hard to make it to the state tournament, which was the goal they set at the beginning of the season,” coach Kyle Stewart said. “Our ultimate goal is to go there and play our best and hopefully walk away as the champions.”

He added that his team has “shown a lot of heart and determination this year” on the way to posting records of 7-2 in league play and 18-8 overall.