The Issaquah Eagle’s basketball season is approaching quickly with both the men’s and women’s teams kicking things off this week.

The men will be led by returning varsity players senior Brian Yoon, senior Jonathan Lo, senior Asa Taylor, sophomore Timmy Crandall, and sophomore Charlie Dietiker. While last season, as described by Crandall, was rather “disappointing and stressful,” the key to success this season according to Lo is “to learn to play with each other and build up our team chemistry, which so far we have done a really good job of.” Yoon says, “Our goal is definitely to get to state and to win. It for sure won’t be easy but we’re really good this year and we’re all really good friends so there is a lot of belief in what we can do currently.” The team, in addition to adding three players from last years junior varsity team, seniors Jason Sherpa and Jameson Pastor as well as sophomore Danny Howe, has also added two new transfers: sophomore Keilen Mcgough from Tahoma High School and junior Saxon Cullimore who recently moved from Utah. This year’s team is filled with ambition as Yoon will be attempting to win defensive player of the year for KingCo, Lo will be shooting for an all KingCo team spot, and Crandall will be aiming to lead the league in assists. Make sure to come out and support the boys this season. As Crandall says, “If the crowd is there and getting loud we will put on a show.” Yoon says, “We’re gonna be a lot of fun to watch so everyone should definitely come out and support.”

The women’s team will also be looking to improve off of last season, being led by their one senior, returning varsity player Lucilia Stewart, who according to junior Lauren Frueh “is a big inspiration to the whole team, and I admire her a lot because of her amazing work ethic and the fact that she just really loves to play.” The girls will also be looking to build off of last season which Lauren Frueh described as “challenging despite all our talent as we couldn’t really work well together.” The way to improve for this season is to “play more as a team and play hard all four quarters,” says sophomore Camryn Gibson. While this year’s team might be very young and lacking experience for the most part, they are still set up to have a great season as the “team is very good this year and our chemistry early on has been really great,” said Gibson. This year’s team is also not short on ambition as their “is to win KingCo and go compete in the state championships,” as per Frueh, so be sure to come out and support the girls “‘[because the] games are [going to] be hype!”

Both teams have their first game at home versus Liberty high school on Tuesday the 27th of November, with the women starting at 6:30 and the men starting at 8:00, so make sure to come out and support both teams as they look to start off the season with wins at home.