According to the old adage, experience is the best teacher.

And in the competitive 4A Kingco league this winter, there will be no basketball team more experienced than the Redmond Mustangs.

The Mustangs’ program has been building up to the 2011-12 season, as a tremendous group of upperclassmen, led by four returning starters from last year, are set to lead the way.

“The expectations are high, not from the outside, but within ourselves,” said head coach Jeff Larson. “We are looking to draw on that experience, and in that sense we have been building up to this year.”

OLDER AND WISER

After the Mustangs’ memorable fifth-place state tournament run in 2009, the team has endured two underachieving seasons as this year’s stars took the time to grow and mature as players.

With the experience and talent the team possesses this time around, numbers like last year’s overall record of 11-12 look to be a thing of the past.

“I think our seniors are a big part, most of us have been playing together since sixth grade, me and Conner have been playing before that,” said Jason Harrington, a first-team all-Kingco selection last year. “That’s our biggest strength.”

In addition to the 6-foot-6 Harrington, Conner Floan will be a force down low at 6-7, along with extremely athletic Peter Hendron, at 6-3, creating a dominating post presence that few squads will be able to match.

“We’ve got a good amount of size,” noted Floan. “We’ve got some bigger guys that can finish down low, that will help a lot. We’re going to be one of the biggest teams in the league.”

The backcourt will feature returning starter Leslie Ellis, and the Mustangs were fortunate to pick up a talented transfer, Kyle Sawtell (right), from King’s School in Shoreline who has made the transition from being a forward to a guard.

“He’s been a real nice addition,” Larson said of Sawtell, who led his former team in scoring as a sophomore last year.

In total, 11 out of the 13 rostered varsity players for the Mustangs will be graduating this spring, with only Sawtell and sophomore guard Ryan Thomson continuing on to next year.

SHARING IS CARING

With as many individual talents as Redmond will have on the court, the challenge will be to get everyone involved offensively and playing as a cohesive unit.

“Our willingness to share the ball,” Larson said on the Mustangs’ key to success this season. “We have to be very unselfish.”

The eighth-year coach added that every extra effort on the hardwood has the potential to be game-defining, as league contests are often decided by a timely steal or a key offensive board down the stretch.

“Often times, the team that plays harder, wins,” Larson said. “Are we going to go for every rebound, take the extra step and deny that pass – are we willing to do the things that don’t show up in the box score?”

As for the players, they dedicated themselves to improving their physical fitness over the summer months, and hope that their hard work will pay dividends.

“In basketball, we put each other to a challenge this summer – everybody get to the gym five days a week,” recalled Harrington. “Everyone really stepped up and I think that’s going to show on the court this year.”

The team will also get to do something they haven’t done since 2008, and that is travel to a holiday hoops tournament.

They will be departing shortly after Christmas to San Francisco and the Bambauer Classic, a premier event featuring some of the best local Catholic prep teams.

“It’s a pretty high-level tournament,” Larson noted. “We’re excited for the competition. We haven’t traveled to something like this since the ‘08-’09 team, and we’re hoping there’s some parallels to what’s happened in past years.”

The “past years” refers to that magical 2008-09 season, where the Mustangs entered the 16-team state tournament as an underdog and ended up placing fifth, the program’s highest finish since 1996 when the Mustangs took fourth.

Two of the team’s starting five had older brothers that were starters on that squad, Harrington (brother Chris) and Ellis (brother Will), and both of them would love to follow in their footsteps at the Tacoma Dome this March.

But when asked whether his team had the potential to make that postseason run, Larson’s simple, four-word answer put the proverbial ball in their court.

“It’s up to them.”