What typically happens to a young team thrown into one of the most difficult leagues in the state? Usually the result is record somewhere around 2-11, which is exactly the record this year's boys' basketball team holds.

"The essence of it is we have only two guys with varsity experience, Tim Zenger and Jason Hildenbrand, and even those guys don't have a lot of experience," said head coach Tim Smiley trying to sum up his season.

The team is definitely inexperienced at the varsity level, but they are also very young. This year's team has only three seniors: Matt Herron, Jeremy Braketa, and Zenger.

"Matt has come tremendous distances defensively this season, and the fact the Jeremy is even playing after tearing his ACL last season says a lot, but there is no escaping the fact that this is their first real season playing varsity," said Smiley.

After losing 63-59 in the closing seconds of Wednesday night's game against Standley Lake, the Panthers now have a 1-5 league record, their only win coming against Golden last week. But the four-point loss against the Gators was a huge improvement over most of the Panthers' performances this year.

Just last week the Panthers fell to Green Mountain 72-53, and Chatfield destroyed them 86-58. The more recent improvement in the team's play can most obviously be attributed to they gained experience over the season. By the end of the season, the team hopes to be playing its best basketball yet.

But even if the team is ready to compete by the time the playoffs roll around, it may be too late. With the record the Panthers have now, they will most likely draw a very low seed and end up playing a team like Chatfield or Arvada West, the two top teams in Jeffco.

Chatfield, as mentioned has already beat Pomona, but the Panthers haven't played Arvada West yet. But A-West is expected to blow the Panthers out next Friday at the 'Cats lair, the Panthers always play their hardest against their arch rivals. The past two years when the Wildcats were considered the better team (like this year). In '99 the Panthers won, last year, Pomona lost by a single point.

"I'm pretty comfortable with the way we're playing right now," said Smiley despite his team's struggles.