This team does not know how it feels to fall short of the state championship. For the past four years, the Mercer Island boys swim team has dominated in the pool and the 2009 team is hungry to earn its spot in the storied lineup.

Head coach Chauntelle Johnson is right with them in their quest, having started off her head coaching career with a state title for the girls team in the fall.

“We have kids with lots of swimming experience and kids with no swimming experience, and I’m really excited to see where the roads are going to take all of the kids by the end of the season,” she said.

With a full roster of 71 swimmers this season, the team is chomping at the bit to get into the pool, put points on the board and see where this season takes them.

“I think the kids are kind of thirsty to get their shot, too. They have a little bit of fire in their eye to get their chance to shine,” said Johnson. “This particular senior class — they work hard, really hard, and they like swimming. They genuinely like swimming.”

With a pedigree like this team has, looking forward to the pool at the King County Aquatic Center would be easy, but Johnson and the swimmers know there is a long way to go before that can happen.

“Right now, it’s kind of hard to see anything past these first couple of weeks of training. We’re still focusing on training and getting into our season plan and sticking to the blueprint that we’ve put together,” she said. But, by no means is Mercer Island forgetting any of those postseason plans.

“Honestly, I think that for us, going after a KingCo title, a district title and a state title is something you kind of do when you’re a part of a program like this. None of the boys on this team knows what it’s like to not win a state title, so I think for them, over the past couple of years what Jeff [Lowell] had done was really establish an atmosphere of hard work to get to that point,” said Johnson. “For me personally as a coach, I want to continue to watch these boys grow in the water and as individuals.”

Growth is already evident, as Johnson said that many of the members of the team invested during the off-season, practicing and working so they started off already ahead.

“A lot of these boys worked in the off-season and some of them have done that before, and it’s noticeable, already, in the first week,” said Johnson. “I think there are quite a few kids who are already a step further than they were last year.”

During the regular season, Mercer Island will be watching teams in the area — the mainstay teams, Johnson called them, like Bellevue and Newport, programs with strong swimming traditions.

“It’s usually so close that they tend to be really fun meets,” Johnson said of those meetings. The boys team will also be heading east for the Southwest Invite in Minneapolis, Minn., at the end of the school’s winter break.

“I’m also excited that we’re going back to Minnesota again this year for the invitational, and I’m really excited for the kids who are going to go and be a part of that. They get to get away and be together and really grow together,” said Johnson.

The MIHS boys swim team will kick off its season with an away meet on Dec. 4 against Roosevelt, before hosting Juanita on Dec. 8 at home.