Picking a girls varsity squad wasn’t difficult for Eastside Catholic’s first-year head basketball coach Ross Fernley.

He simply walked into the room on the first day of practice, handed out jerseys to all 10 of the athletes in the room, and congratulated them on making the team.

“They kind of snickered and I said, ‘Don’t laugh, there are a lot of kids who decided not to come out because this is a challenge,’” Fernley said. “’You 10 have decided to pick up a major challenge and change something that’s been not successful for the last four or five years.’”

Since then, Fernely who has coached for the Seattle-based Emerald City Basketball Association the last five years, said his team has stepped up to the challenge. The Crusaders, who went 1-17 last season, won their first game 64-37 over Cedar Park Christian. They led a top 10-ranked Lakeside team before losing a close game, 66-58.

“I know the kids are excited and I’m excited,” Fernley said. “For them to get that first win in game one, to go ‘Hey we can do this,’ is huge.”

While this year’s Eastside Catholic team is young, Fernely says the team has all the tools.

Sophomore guard Michaela O’Rourke returns as one of just four players who saw varsity time last season.

“She’s a very aggressive point guard,” Fernley said. “I think she’s averaging eight steals right now. She’ll gamble a little bit, but a lot of times it ends up pretty well.”

The Crusaders also gain a significant asset in 6-foot-2 freshman Sarah Hill.

“There’s not very many back-to-basket post players, but she truly is one,” Fernley said.

Eastside also returns Alex Johnston, Shelby Newell, Shannon Graves, and Courtney Webster — all players who saw some varsity time last season. Freshmen Courtney Brown and Lauren Brown also bring athleticism to the team.

The Metro stacks up to be a difficult league again this season with Holy Names, Lakeside, Seattle Prep and Cleveland the favorites. As for the Crusaders’ goals this season, Fernley is keeping them simple to start.

“Initially it’s just to go out and be competitive and then you kind of go forward as the year goes on,” he said. “Can we get to the Metro playoffs and then maybe we can knock off one of the big four or five? We want to beat one of those teams and say we’re not the same Eastside Catholic anymore.”