They may not be happy with how they played at state last year, but the Cedar Rapids Washington boys soccer team should have a chance to remedy that this season.

The Warriors graduated just two seniors off last year's state qualifying team that fell 1-0 in the first round to West Des Moines Valley.

With so many returning starters, the Warriors hoped to make a run at the state championship again this year, but they ran into a roadblock during the off-season.

“Five of our varsity kids are ineligible for either our good conduct policy or grades. So we are missing four starters,” Coach J.P. Graham said.

"We are going to be starting some younger kids that don’t have the experience that those guys have. If we had our full team, we would be pretty tough right now, but for the first third of the season we are going to be young again.”

To make matters worse for Washington, the five suspended players are all defenders, including three starters, leaving the underclassmen to cover.

The Warriors expect to get all five players back one-third of the way through the season, and they are still hopeful they will have a successful year.

Washington is led by the only returning first team all-state player in the Metro, Brandon Besong.

Brandon Besong takes leadership role

“Brandon has taken on more of a leadership role this year, which is good,” Graham said. “If the kids could follow his example, that would be just wonderful. He has been running and lifting all winter. He is stronger and quicker, so we are excited to see him out on the field this year.”

Besong also will help bring the powerful Washington offense to life.

“I think our offense is going to be pretty good with Brandon leading the way,” Graham said. “We have some good sophomores kids that are looking pretty good in practice, so we are excited to see them in competition.”

That offense is exactly how Besong likes to play, fast and aggresive.

“We like to get up and go,” Besong said. "We like to run at them and attack. Sometimes it’s a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing because we can get caught forward and people counter us, but we like to go.”

Players hopeful about championship

If the Warriors can get their offense clicking and reintegrate the suspended defenders after the first third of the season, they might be able to make a return trip to state and give the senior class one last chance at its dream -- a state championship.

“I think we can win a state championship,” defender Joe Eken said. “A lot of us seniors have been talking about it since eighth grade.”

With most of the players on the roster having been on the team last season, they all have seen the state tournament and will be ready to give it their best shot.

“We will have a little more experience and a little more composure when we are at state,” Besong promised.