Friday
Friday Harbor 41
MV Christian 27
It’ll likely stand as one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of local high school sports.

The Friday Harbor girls basketball team, after a four-year odyssey at the bottom of the league, catapulted out of the cellar to clinch its first outright league championship in more than two decades.

And they did it in style, winning 11 consecutive league games after opening league play with a double-digit loss at La Conner. They would avenge that defeat by dealing the Braves, the defending Northwest 1A/2B League champ, a double-digit loss of their own. And for the first time in recent memory they defeated Orcas on the road and at home — in overtime — to sweep the two-game season series from their inter-island rival.

The Wolverines tallied as many league wins this season as in the past three combined, finishing a 12-game league schedule at 11-1.

The turnaround didn’t happen overnight.

In fact, Head Coach Eric Jangard traces the arc of the winning formula all the way back to the off-season. The players spent eight weeks of summer honing their skills and their shooting strokes, and competing in several off-island tournaments. It paid off in a big way.

“The whole thing starts with their dedication in the summer,” Jangard said. “When the season started, we didn’t have to spend a lot of time getting in shape or going over the Xs and Os. The girls picked things up real quick and got to work.”

Junior Kelsey Barnes, who anchors the team in the low post, envisioned a break-out year. But even her expectations were exceeded.

“It feels wonderful. I love winning,” she said. “I knew we’d be a good team my junior year, but I didn’t think it would be like this. We go into a game with a lot more confidence now and believing that we can win.”

The Wolverines enter post-season play with a league title in hand, but a tough task ahead. Their 11-game winning streak against Division 2B competition is no indicator as to how they may fare in the opening round of the 1A playoffs. They lost to each of their potential opening-round foes, Coupeville and Nooksack Valley, earlier this season.

Still, Jangard said the squad that stumbled three weeks ago against the Pioneers and the one beaten by Coupeville in December is not same Friday Harbor team that on Friday clinched the league championship. It’s better.

“The success, it just snowballs, and it feeds on itself,” he said. “I think we’re a lot better now than we were earlier this season.”