POULSBO — After five years on the court together, the NK Jammers — an eighth/ninth grade traveling basketball team — are still as enthusiastic as the first day they picked up a basketball.

The team has seen a few changes since its formation in 2001 when most of the players were only in the fourth grade. But its core has stuck together over the course and the team is now showcasing its capability as they brought home first place from the high school division of Washington’s Premier League Nov. 12.

On the road to the title, the Jammers had to face two road blocks against Juanita and Gig Harbor. But in both hard-fought contests, the NK team ended with a 3-point upper hand.

“We were down both games the whole time,” said eighth-grade guard Jordan Wall. “It was a battle in the end and we ended up winning.”

The Jammers defeated Juanita by a count of 48-45 for entry into the finals where they met Gig Harbor. In the championship game, Gig had amassed as much as a 16-point lead at one point in the game, but the Jammers picked themselves back up and overcame the deficit to take the game by a final count of 72-69.

“It was simply a matter of resolve,” head coach Joe Schiel said. “Once our girls decided they were taking the game, the scoring turned around and the defense became much more fierce.”

A ferocious defense matched with an up tempo, high octane offense is the type of strategy that Schiel has been looking to instill in the team in his first year at the helm. After helping out in the early years while Sherry Heart led the team, Schiel stepped in this summer as she exited.

Since beginning the year’s competition, the Jammers have played in two different leagues and are currently searching for a winter league to participate in until the girls start up their respective school seasons.

Roughly half of the team will play for the Kingston Cavaliers while the other half will sport Panther blue when the school basketball season begins in 2007.

“That’s the whole point is to get them prepared and ready for school ball,” Schiel said.

The Jammers have been chiseling themselves with iron, as players agree that the competition they face with the traveling team is much greater than that in school. This year, playing in the high school division of Washington’s Premier League, the team learned a lesson from the 2005 2A state champion.

“When we’re over in Seattle, we ran into a team — we didn’t know it until afterwards — but they were King’s — last year’s 2A state champion,” Schiel said. “They mopped the floor with us, but I told the girls ‘It’s a training opportunity, take it and use it.’ After that, they never looked back.”

“What was amazing was the game after it,” assistant coach Rick West said. “Sometimes you just have to see it to realize that ‘hey, that could be me.’”

Now, the Jammers are taking that confidence they’ve gained into the playoffs of the Western Washington eight/ninth grade league which pits them against teams from this side of the water like Port Angeles, Sumner, Gig and Bainbridge Island.

NK’s playoff will begin at 1:15 p.m. Sunday at North Kitsap High School. The Jammers are headed in as the No. 1 seed.