A symphony of squeaking shoes and the thunderous tumult of two dozen bouncing basketballs filled the Bainbridge High School gymnasium. Even as many students rushed for the bus, or for the parking lot, at the end of the day, some Spartans dashed onto the court to begin warming up for one of the last practice sessions before the boys varsity basketball team began the season for real.

Looking out over it all, Spartan Head Coach Steve Haizlip broke into an excited grin.

“I think right now everything is going great,” he said. “We’re looking good.”

Haizlip, returning for his second year at the helm of the island squad, assembled this year’s team after evaluating some 45 hopefuls at tryouts late last month. Selecting the final roster, he said, was “very hard,” but resulted in what he called an “exciting” lineup of five core returners, at least one standout freshman and a deeper bench than last year.

“We have a lot of guys who are still new but who have the energy,” he said. “That is going to really play out as the season goes along.”

The central five — three with “real experience” and two with “minimal experience,” Haizlip said, but all court veterans — are Lyle Terry, Marcus Clyde, Brendan Burke, Jack Barnes and Charles Hoburg.

“They’re looking great and I love the energy,” the coach said. “[We’re] just continuing to build off of last year. We had a new system last year, so now we’re really just kind of adding to that, just [gaining] more familiarity with the whole offense.”

The team finished the season last year with an overall record of 7-15.

One freshman at least, Johnathan Kussie, is expected to see some varsity playing time this year as well.

“He’s up here for a reason,” Haizlip said of the feisty frosh.

In keeping with some lessons learned during his first year coaching in the Metro League, Haizlip said the preseason focus for the team has thus far been general conditioning and offensive strategy.

“The pace of Metro, you can watch it from a distance but actually being in it? It’s pretty legit,” he said. “It’s amazing. A lot of times you can’t run something you want to run because of the pace but the key with that is teaching them how to counter the pace of the game.

“I wouldn’t say it was a surprise, but actually being in it was a totally different experience.”

Offense may be the first focus, but the coach admitted it is more often than not a solid defensive plan that makes the difference in Metro, a notoriously competitive league wherein it is almost impossible to simply outscore one’s opponent.

“I always put in all of our offensive stuff [early],” Haizlip said. “Your defensive stuff can come. I will say though, however, I do focus a lot on defense too because my belief is that if you play D you can win a game. Especially in Metro, you have to play defense to the best of your ability. The biggest thing we try to teach is you’ve got to limit [the other team’s] possessions.”

Haizlip returned his theme of having the squad choose a single word by which they hoped to be defined this year. They chose “together,” which the coach said he thought was a surprisingly appropriate choice.

“I was really proud of them,” he said. “You could have picked something like ‘grit.’ Not that that’s bad but I thought, ‘I like that.’ We always say ‘family’ in the huddle, and now it’s going to be ‘together.’

“Metro can be a roller coaster,” he added. “If you’re not together it can be hard.”

The most important thing he was looking to establish early in the year, the coach said, is consistency. Everything else can be tweaked as you go.

“Consistency across the board, that’s all I’m looking for,” he said. “If we’re consistent across the board in everything that we do, we’re going to have a good season. I always say, ‘Whatever that means, I don’t know.’ But we’ll have a good season because we’re consistent in our efforts, consistent in being a good teammate. That’s the biggest thing.”

The position of team captains was as yet unfilled as of earlier this week, though the coach said he intended to assign four players the post in a revolving status, with acting captains being chosen every few weeks based on the performance and personal conduct of senior players in games and at practices.

Haizlip has always emphasized conduct among his players, and is often stressing the importance of perspective over sheer performance.

“What you have to realize is we’re playing a game of basketball, right?” Haizlip said. “I want us to win as bad as anybody does, but when it’s all said and done — when the game’s over we got to move on, win or lose.

“Every year, no matter what happens politically, I think the closer knit that we can be — not just for the game of basketball [but] after the game of basketball, outside the game of basketball — it’s going to be a great experience.”

The Spartan boys begin their season at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2 at home against Bishop Blanchet. They then move on the very next day to play against North Kitsap at 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3 on the road.

It’s a sudden, intense start to the year, two games back-to-back in the first weekend, but one that the coach said he and the squad are looking forward to.

“In my opinion you couldn’t ask for a better Friday and Saturday,” he said. “I’m super excited.

“Every game [in Metro], it’s just incredible,” he added.

“I look at it as an opportunity to honestly play some of the best basketball, not just in the state of Washington but in the country.”