Skyline football team wearing a bull's-eye

SAMMAMISH — With two straight perfect seasons, two of the most coveted recruits on the West Coast and a consensus place among the country's top teams, the Skyline High School football team did not attempt to play down its lofty standing Wednesday as it took the field for its first practice.

Instead, taking the metaphor a step further, more than 100 Spartans players showed up with actual targets printed on the back of their practice T-shirts.

And in the bull's-eye? The Spartan logo.

"They turned out nice," a smiling coach Mat Taylor said after practice.

The meaning was not lost on Skyline's players, who can take one look at their schedule and realize they aren't exactly the average high-school football team this season.

Skyline will play the showcase game of the Emerald City Kickoff Classic against Jesuit of Portland on Sept. 5 at Qwest Field, then hosts Oaks Christian of California — and UW-bound quarterback Nick Montana — in a Sept. 18 game to be televised on ESPNU.

And that's before Skyline plays a single league game in the KingCo 4A, which promises to be as competitive as ever.

"There are more expectations than ever," quarterback Jake Heaps said. "The pressure's huge."

Heaps, who ended his crowded recruitment by committing to BYU this summer, returns after throwing for 5,843 yards and 66 touchdowns during the past two championship seasons. Junior Kasen Williams, a 6-foot-2 receiver and safety on the verge of reaching 200 pounds, blossomed over the past year into one of the top prospects in the country. Senior Anthony Dematteo, an all-state linebacker, is back behind three returning linemen.

With an average of 90 players in each open weight-room session this summer, there's no shortage of fill-ins for the eight starters who graduated last spring.

"We've had open weight room before, but never like this," Taylor said. "It was unbelievable."

Even as the team learns an entirely new defense under new defensive coordinator Steve Schmiel — "We're just now getting it down," Williams said — Taylor sees the potential for this Skyline team to be as good, if not better, than the past two.

"The sky's the limit with this group," Taylor said.