Though previous Mercer Island teams have been to the state finals before, it’s not something this year’s boys soccer squad would like to bring up.

“We had players express their disinterest in talking about any team except for this team, so we stopped that abruptly,” Mercer Island coach Colin Rigby said after his team’s final practice of the season. “They want to differentiate themselves from what’s happened in the past.”

Making the final game of the state tournament for the third time in five years is quite an accomplishment within itself, and something the Islander players are collectively taking in as a new experience this time around for the 2016 team. There may be similarities with last year’s varsity squad that also finished undefeated in KingCo, or the 2014 team that reached the 3A championship final.

But the 2016 Islanders are dead set on forging their own path in the final days of their season.

“We’ve focused more on enjoying your time here and taking every experience as it comes because everything is new,” Rigby said. “We have to prove ourselves every game to everybody we see because we weren’t here last year.

“Prove yourself, let everybody know who you are and enjoy the experience because everything is brand new.”

Rigby said there have been lessons learned, both for coaches and players, over the course of the last couple of years. He said the difference with his team’s postseason approach this year is sharing the challenge at hand, something the Islanders may have strayed from at the end of last season.

“When we had to win games, we had a lot of players who were so good and they wanted to put it on their shoulders because they knew the importance,” he said. “That ended up becoming something that actually held us back because it took away from that team.”

With a week off after Mercer Island’s quarterfinal win over Roosevelt, Rigby said the downtime provided a challenge within itself. But it gave his team time to hear from a couple high-profile guest speakers heading into the final week of state tournament competition. MIHS soccer alum Jordan Morris visited the team, and former NFL quarterback and sports radio host Brock Huard spoke to the group prior to their game against Mountlake Terrace.

As a program waiting to win its first state crown, Rigby said his players were quite aware of what they have, and have not, accomplished.

“They don’t need to be reminded of the times we almost did it,” he said. “They love identifying themselves as, ‘This is our team.’ We want to provide whatever legacy we provide.”

His hope is, win or lose, his players walk away from the 2016 playoff run proud of what they’ve done.

“For them to do that, they’re going to have to play as hard as they’ve ever played,” he said. “If they finish the weekend saying they did everything they could, this story will take care of itself.”

Editor’s note: This story was written and sent to publication prior to Mercer Island’s state semifinal against Edmonds-Woodway. The online version of this article was edited to reflect the outcome of Friday’s soccer match.