KINGSTON — Coming off its first-ever perfect season, the Kingston Junior high School girls’ basketball team is undoubtedly feeling the pressure that comes with knowing every team in the league is looking to knock them off their unbeaten pedestal.

But rather then dwell on the possibility of losing, the Cavs are taking a different route: they want to repeat the feat.

“We’ll be ready for anything that comes our way,” said ninth grader Riley Watts. “I expect us to be the champs again.”

On a team that achieved one of the highest possible marks a junior high school squad can — a 12-0 record — setting goals can be difficult. However, the confidence seems to be intact to attempt a doubling of that win streak.

“The expectation of being 12-0 again is there,” said coach Tony Chisholm. “We’re on top and we don’t want to go down.”

The squad has good reason to be confident. The core crop of last year’s unbeaten team remains in Kingston red and black for this season. And off-season training has the players confident they’ve improved, especially when it comes to endurance.

“We’ve gained team speed,” said eighth grader Erin Nicol. “And I don’t think we’ve lost anything.”

Coach Chisholm said he wants to make sure his players focus on this season and not get caught up in chasing records. But judging by their attitudes, Chisholm added that shouldn’t be a concern.

“This team seems to have a lot of positive energy,” Chisholm said. “And we don’t talk about last year that much. It’s over.”

Chisholm said he’s made some adjustments to the team’s offense in part because of the departure of a few ninth graders but also because of the tremendous improvement of a few returners.

Ninth grader Aubin Duncan, who Chisholm said “improved extremely during the off-season,” will play mostly in the post this year. Nicol, who last year made the team as a seventh grader and proved herself to be a ferocious competitor, Chisholm said, will be moved to the point guard position. And Watts will also be moved into the inside post, utilizing her height and athleticism.

Chisholm’s two main strategies will be to “put pressure on the ball at all times,” and to employ a transition game as often as possible to utilize team speed, he said.

“When you have speed,” the veteran KJH coach commented, “you let ‘em run.”

Should those two strategies pay off — coupled with a team which has brimming enthusiasm — another doughnut in the loss column may indeed be attainable.

“I’m really excited to try and go undefeated again,” Duncan said. “I don’t think any junior high school’s ever done that.”