By Zachariah Bryan

The five seniors on the Ballard High School girls basketball team have big expectations this year.

After all, not many teams have a group like Shelby Bailess, Cailey Beckett, Beverly Verduin, Nancy MacGeorge and Imani Bender, who have been playing basketball together since the sixth grade. (And who have been playing separately even earlier, with the Ballard Boys and Girls Club.)

“There are very few teams who can say they have what we have,” Bailess said.

“I feel like we’re gonna go a lot further than last year. I think we can go all the way,” Beckett said.

“We’re in a determined-to-win state,” Verduin said.

It’s a story reminiscent of college basketball’s “Fab Five,” from Michigan University, a core group of talented players who have a family-like bond ready to take on the world. However, it’ll be up to the girls to not meet the same fate as the Fab Five, who had every expectation of clinching the championship but fell short in the end.

Part of that is to not let visions of grandeur cause a lapse in playing, said Head Coach Sara Wetstone. Players will have to remember to stay in the present and to play one game at a time. It’s a common refrain heard by coaches, but there is some practical truth to it.

“It’s exciting when you have a team that has a lot of expectations, but sometimes that can get everybody confused, a little bit cloudy,” Wetstone said.

So far, year to year, the team has steadily doubled their record. In their freshman year, the girls won three games. Sophomore year, six games. And last year, they won 13 games.

This year, Wetstone said the team will be focused on upping the tempo, particularly on running and pushing the ball in offense and making quicker shots. Particularly, Wetstone said, they are a really good three-pointer team, so there will be an emphasis on that.

Verduin is the most aggressive in her three-point game. In 2012, she attempted 144 three-pointers, making 51 for a percentage of 35 percent. She has the most attempted three-pointers and is the 7th leading scorer in the league.

Wetstone said a couple of big matches to look out for will be against Inglemoor, who still have strong players after letting go of some last year, and Newport, who Ballard has been 0-and-7 against the past three years.

“For some reason we can’t get past them. We’re looking to break that record,” Wetstone said.

After playing most of their life together, it will be the girls’ teamwork that will be their greatest asset.

“I think they have a lot of understandings about their similarities and differences and how to work together to get their best results,” Wetstone said. “They learned a lot about leadership and how to push themselves to the next level.”

Win or lose, at the end of the year, the girls will be graduating high school and going their own ways. Only one, Verduin, has plans to play college basketball. She signed with Central Washington University earlier this year.

During an interview with the Ballard News-Tribune, the girls tried not to think about the end of the year. They’ll probably cry, they said.

But, after playing together so long and being referred to as “the basketball girls,” it’s doubtable that their bond will dissolve.

“You can say we don’t have many friends outside of this,” Verduin joked. “I’m dead serious.”

The Ballard High School girl’s basketball team’s first game will be against Shoreline-based King’s High School. When the two schools met last year it was a two-point nail-biter win for Ballard. It will be a home game at BHS on Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m.