The Mount Si Wildcats boys’ basketball team last season finished at a disappointing 8-13, with their season ending in a playoff loss to Bellevue at Liberty High School. This year, most of that team is returning, and they are aiming high.

“I expect us to do really well. It’s not a very far-reaching goal to expect us to win almost every game, so I expect us to do well,” said Kyle Meuli, one of eight seniors on this year’s team.

This year’s team has the most seniors Wildcat coach Garrick Phillips has ever coached during his 13-year tenure at Mount Si.

“Well, it’s kind of a do or die situation for eight kids,” Phillips said. “We have eight seniors on the varsity team this year … and so it’s going to be an interesting year, and it’s just a tribute to the strength of this class.”

The other seniors are returning players Kyle Clearman, Ryan Reilly, Kevin Englund, Tylor Littlejohn, Remo Castagno and newcomers Greg Beckmann and Nick Dietsch. Junior Tommy Abbott and sophomore Sam Hunston may also see some time this season on varsity.

Even with the strong talent within the program, Phillips is feeling the pressure brought on by kids specializing in other sports. He said a few boys who were JV players last year have chosen not to come out for the team this year because they are specializing in another sport.

“The era of the three-sport athlete is kind of dwindling … we’ve lost three or four kids over the past couple of years whohave decided to concentrate on other sports, and I don’t like it,” he said. “I wish we had kids that were able to play more sports, but the time commitment and the demands that coaches are making on kids, I think it’s leading to that problem.”

Kingco appears to be wide open this year, but Phillips says to look for Mercer Island, Sammamish and Issaquah to contend for the league title.

The new $75 sports fee Mount Si is charging this season appears to have had no effect on turnout.

“As far as I know, it did not discourage anyone from trying out, and we had better numbers this year than we had last year,” Phillips said, adding, “I’m excited about our group. We had great numbers for tryouts, and that always makes it hard for cuts.”

One key underclassmen player who will not be on the floor this year is sophomore Caleb Williams. Williams, who showed a lot of potential as a freshman last season, was seriously injured in an accident over the summer and is still recovering.

“The biggest thing with Caleb Williams is he’s missed by this team tremendously, not only as a person, but as a player,” Phillips said. “He was a very, very special athlete, one of the most gifted freshmen that I’ve ever coached.”

Clearman said he and his team have learned the tough lessons of last season’s struggles.

“I think, last year, we might have been a little overconfident; we might have looked past some teams, but this year from getting all that experience of ‘we can’t just go out there and go through the motions,’ you got to get out there and work hard and play as a team, and then good things will happen,” Clearman said.

Clearman’s sister, Kara, was a midfielder this fall on the girls soccer team, which advanced to state, and now he wants to do the same.

“Our goal this year should be nothing less than to be successful at the state tournament,” Kyle Clearman said.

Mount Si’s home schedule begins on Dec. 8 against Liberty. The boys, like the Wildcat girls, are scheduled to play in the holiday tournament in Ellensburg, and also have a date with Bothell on Dec. 10 at Bellevue Community College. All home games tip off at 7:30 p.m.