Seven Lakes has thrown its young players into the fire to start the season.

The Spartans knew how important it would be for a young team to be ready for the rigors of District 19-6A play and the coaching staff made sure they were ready. They put all their players to the test early and often, playing one of the toughest non-district schedules in the state while growing their player's chemistry.

That sink-or-swim mentality could have backfired after the Spartans lost their first three games of the year. Some teams would have lost their sense of belief or turned on each other early in the season. But instead, a young Seven Lakes squad learned, they dug deeper and they played better after facing that adversity and since then, it’s been nothing but wins.

Seven Lakes has reeled off nine straight wins since those three losses so start the year, with Tuesday’s being the most important of all, as the Spartans started district play with a 67-56 win over Katy, overcoming a strong effort from the Tigers (10-2, 0-1) to improve to 9-3 on the year and 1-0 in district.

“It’s always important to start district off the right way, especially against such a tough team,” said sophomore Isaiah Santos. “This is one of the toughest teams we have faced all year, so it feels good to get this win, start district strong and set the tone for the rest of the season.”

Seven Lakes jumped out to a big lead early in the game and led 14-4 in the first quarter, but that was trimmed to 16-8 by the quarter end. Katy then went on a huge run in the second and went into the half leading 32-26 on the back of its motion offense which gave the Spartans fits in the first half before they finally settled in and slowed down the Katy offense in the second half.

“Katy does so many things so well, especially on the back side of that motion offense and we were losing sight of the ball,” said Seven Lakes head coach Shannon Heston. “The guys came out and fixed what we struggled with in the first half and got their head on a swivel. It’s stuff we work on every day, but it was more of a reminder than anything else about how we have to play defensively.”

The Spartans came out and took control in the second half, going up 47-42 by the end of the third quarter before pulling away down the stretch. Right at the center of it was Santos, who seemed to get his hand on every key loose, ball, every key rebound and score almost every key point down the stretch. That’s part of the maturation of the sophomore’s game, who despite only being in his second season of varsity ball has become one of the team's key leaders both on and off the court. But he wasn’t alone either. Fellow sophomores Dean Spencer and Alex Teahen both came away with huge buckets, AmelEl Tadesse ran the Seven Lakes offense very well, getting players involved and scoring points himself and Sean Mwesigwa was a force on both ends.

“I’m just playing my role and trying to do my job the best that I can,” Teahen said. “I’m going to have to make the most of my opportunities, shoot when I have the chance, rebound and play good defense. It’s getting more comfortable and I’m glad I was able to help my team get a win tonight.”

That is part of the growth that this Seven Lakes unit has shown early in the season. The players believe in each other, in the system and in how they play the game. And that’s exactly why they are confident they can make another run this year.

“They believe in themselves,” Heston said. “After those first three games, it would have been easy to be worried or look around and blame someone else. It’s tough for any kid in those situations,” Heston said. “But these kids put their heads down, they worked and now nine wins later, that confidence has completely blossomed because they see the success on the court. It’s been so fun to see because I knew they could always do it, but they had to learn it for themselves.”