The goal is clear, and the team knows it.

State.

“The team has high expectations to go far,” said senior co-captain Tyler “Chuck” Norris.

Fellow senior co-captain Riley Newman put it more bluntly.

“Our goal this year is to make it to state, and if we don’t make it to state, it’s a disappointing year,” Newman said.

The South Whidbey Falcons have come close to the prize before, advancing in last season’s Class 2A Northwest District Tournament with a win over Archbishop Murphy before falling to the Lydnen Lions.

But this year, the Falcons have a chip on their shoulder, too. The (Everett) Herald projected South Whidbey High School to finish seventh in the Cascade Conference.

“I showed that to the team and said, ‘This isn’t what’s going to happen,’” Newman said.

Henry Pope moved from girls basketball to the boys program this year at South Whidbey. Pope coached the girls team for three years. He said he found the job leading the boys’ squad enticing, and applied as soon as he learned it was vacant. Even so, it wasn’t an easy move.

“It was very, very hard for me to leave the girls,” Pope said.

The boys team is on its third head coach in the past four years, after former coach Chris Ferrier left the position in June.

“It’s kind of interesting having three coaches in four years,” Norris said. “I don’t think a lot of players go through that. It’s been a challenge. Every year’s a new system, new practice, new philosophy, just a new way of coaching. I think all the guys are really happy with coach Pope.”

“As he calls it, it’s not just his team, it’s our team.”

Pope anticipated the team’s potential confusion and addressed it by asking the players what they think would work offensively. He’s able to communicate freely with the team’s seniors because they are familiar with Pope; he coached the group of seniors when they were in seventh grade at Langley Middle School.

“I stepped into a dream position,” Pope said. “I got some kids that know the game of basketball.”

For the rest of the team, Pope said his players learn quickly, allowing him to go into detail about offensive and defensive sets and skills in practice. He credits his assistant coaches for the team’s efficiency and preparedness in practices and games. Ed Baran and Tim Gabelein are varsity assistants, Kenon Simmons is the junior varsity coach and Jim Hanson is the C-team coach.

“If we can fine-tune things, we can beat anybody,” Pope said.

Pope counts on veteran leadership and good shooting to guide his team on its path to the state tournament. Newman noted the team’s effort to rebound and defend as keys to opening the door to state.

Newman returns as the Cascade Conference’s most valuable player, and one of The Herald’s “Five Players to Watch.” The league MVP took exception to that, and thought he deserved to be a featured player like Brett Kingma, the Jackson High School guard who committed to the University of Oregon, one of two players profiled by the newspaper.

“I was kind of offended that I wasn’t one of those players,” Newman said. “So I’m going to prove to the Everett Herald that I’m one of the players to watch.”

Pope knows he has an offensive threat in Newman. He also has a leader.

“All I care about is if the team wins,” Newman said.

“He’s willing to sacrifice personal glory for the sake of the team,” said Pope of Newman. “There are going to be times I unleash the beast.”

The first-year head coach and the players are on the same page, and understand they’ll both need to sacrifice to win. Eleven players are on the varsity roster, and Pope said he is comfortable with each one on the court.

Team co-captains Ben Cary, Newman and Norris may not be the most vocal guys, but they lead by example, Pope explained.

“It’s kind of what we worked for all our basketball careers,” Norris said. “And it’s finally here.”

Newman said he put in a lot of hours training during the offseason, and encouraged his teammates to do so. He was honored to be nominated as a team co-captain.

Pope and the captains highlighted the importance of every game, that it needs to be treated like a championship.

However, Norris pointed to Archbishop Murphy and King’s high schools as the preseason top two teams, and teams they want to beat.

“If we beat [Archbishop Murphy] one time, then we know that we can play with anyone in the league, maybe even districts and maybe even state,” Newman said.

The Falcons haven’t forgotten about rival Coupeville High School.

“We’re going to get Coupeville this year, at least one time,” Newman said.

The Falcons lost the season opener to Mount Baker, 54-39 on Nov. 30.

The team made 20.6 percent of its field goals and was out-rebounded 40-38. Pope admitted the stats weren’t pretty, but highlighted Mount Baker’s 22 turnovers, and

6 offensive rebounds.

“We gave up a lot of points last year,” Newman said. “Yesterday we gave up like a total of 50 points. Last year that would have been our best game ever.”

“We have the talent, we have the determination — and I think that will be the key factor in making it come together,” Norris said.