TOPEKA (KSNT) – After a substate championship game loss to end last season, Seaman girls’ basketball is looking to make a deep playoff run.

“We started the season with the end in mind, that’s what I told them, we got to begin with the end in mind,” Seaman girls’ basketball coach Matt Tinsley said.

Last year, Seaman was one of the youngest teams in 5A.

“We were a young team last year, we had one senior,” Seaman junior guard Taylin Stallbaumer said. “Now we have two. We have very few juniors, so yes, we are a very young team.”

Young team last year, young team this year.

“We start a freshman, one senior, a couple juniors and a sophomore, so we’re still extremely young,” Tinsley said.

The difference this year is now the Vikings have expectations. After week one, the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association has Seaman ranked No. 3 in 5A.

“It’s nice to be ranked, but we try not to focus on that too much, you know,” said Seaman sophomore guard Anna Becker. “Leave the articles aside, and we just want to focus on ourselves, take it one game at a time and keep winning.”

The girls on this team aren’t just “good for underclassmen,” they’re legit.

“It’s nice that they’re going to be around for some time, but knowing that, we have so much we can do to get better,” Tinsley said. “They still haven’t scratched the surface on their potential, and that’s my job to get that out of them.”

The Vikings got an unexpected confidence boost from watching the Seaman boys’ team win the state title last year.

“That is going to be us this year, because we’re going to win state,” Stallbaumer said.

“We want to go to the state tournament and we want to win it. That’s the goal,” Becker said.