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Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School boys lacrosse team established itself as the team to beat in the Mountain Conference last season.

This year, with a solid core of players returning at all positions, another year of experience as a program, and a league championship under its belt, the Sailors have set out to establish themselves as a perennial power in boys lacrosse across the state.

“We can do that this year,” Steamboat coach Bob Hiester said. “Once you do that, you have that aura. All of a sudden there is a doubt in your opponent’s mind. It’s like, ‘Ah, we have to play Steamboat.’ It’s important to establish that winning tradition over other programs.”

To do that, Steamboat’s schedule looks a little different this season. The Sailors should still be considered the favorite in the eight-team Mountain Confer­ence. But after rolling through the conference undefeated last season, Steamboat lost in its first appearance in the state playoffs against Lewis-Palmer.

Part of that loss came from not playing at the high level prominent along the Front Range. This season, Steamboat has scheduled four out-of-conference games in hopes of trying to get that high level of play.

“It comes back every day, that taste we had against Lewis-Palmer,” Steamboat midfielder Jack Spady said. “I noticed a lot of people were more tense and scared about that game because it wasn’t against the teams we had been playing. I think this group is more mature. I think playing against these teams that are more difficult, we should do fine.”

That test begins at 1 p.m. today against defending state champion Arapahoe High School.

It should be a good barometer for a team with big goals.

Steamboat returns just about everybody from last season’s team that finished with just one loss. The team has experience at attack, midfield, defense and goalie.

The top two midfield lines should be the best in the league.

“It’s all about team chemistry,” midfielder Garret Ehrick said. “No one needs to get cocky. The team aspect is to stay in line. We definitely want to try and make it further in the playoffs this year.”

Summit should be the main challenger to Steamboat in the Mountain Conference. Hiester said the first goal is to try to repeat as league champs and then go from there.

He said the idea is to get better as the season goes along. That starts today with the defending state champions.

“This is going to tell us a lot,” Hiester said. “At this point of the year, you just don’t know. I think the potential, though, is there for us to be a very good lacrosse team.”