A little something about Jack and Alec.

Two Lake City High soccer players, doing the best they can, for the program in 2014.

One wants to play soccer, somewhere afar.

The other likes to hunt, in the mountains or anywhere else in the area.

Jack Barrett, in fact, celebrated the team's 5A Region 1 championship by going hunting on a rare off-day for the team the day after the championship match.

"At least 90 percent of the time, I'm out in the woods," said Barrett, a junior forward. "I didn't get anything, but it was a lot of fun out there."

While he enjoys elk hunting, Barrett got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, being drawn for a moose tag this year. That season starts on Nov. 1, the week after the soccer season ends.

"I'm really excited," Barrett said. "It doesn't even have to be hunting for me. I could be fishing, hiking, camping, river rafting in the summer. I just like being outdoors, untouched and away from things on the trails."

Once the soccer season ends, Barrett will likely be back out in the woods.

"I'm not able to hunt much during the season," Barrett said. "I'm never able to take practices off because (Lake City coach) Chad (Beadell) doesn't allow that, and I wouldn't do that anyway. It's kind of hard when it's not light out after practice ends. He'll usually give us Saturday and Sunday off. Luckily, this year when I get my moose tag, state will already be over with, so I can hunt and take school off if my grades are good enough."

For Alec Maldonado, a senior forward, he's all about the game of soccer.

"Soccer is pretty much the only thing I do," Maldonado said, "besides playing basketball in the gym and messing around with the basketball. I just love soccer. It's the best thing in the world to me."

In the duo's third year together on varsity, they've got the Timberwolves in uncharted waters this season - unbeaten headed to the state tournament, something that hasn't happened since the school opened in 1994.

"We started preparing for this season a lot earlier than other teams," Maldonado said. "We did cardio workouts in the summer every other day and that got us more prepared. Chad does a great job of getting us prepared during the week to get ready for games and for this season."

Those runs, often times, were in the heat of the day during the summer, and stretched for 2 miles.

"During the summer, Chad isn't allowed to coach us," Maldonado said. "So some of us will go out to Skyway (Elementary School), the captains and whoever, and we'll do a run and just go for runs. It just gets us that much better that way for the season."

"I've done this every year since my freshman year," Barrett said. "It just makes us that much better. No other team around here is doing that kind of stuff in the summer, and some don't condition the way that we do during the season."

Whatever they've done, it has worked out as the Timberwolves carry a 15-0 record into this week's state 5A soccer tournament at the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex.

They'll open the tournament Thursday against Centennial High (16-1-2) of Boise.

"I've been to state three of four years," Maldonado said. "It's fun. I love going down (to state) to play. I enjoy getting on the bus and going down to state. We just need to go out and play hard and keep training hard until Wednesday, get on the bus and get over there and play."

"We'll need a lot of luck and things to go right," Barrett said. "But the whole team is determined to win a state title."

Barrett played up three years to compete on the same Coeur d'Alene Sting club soccer team in recent years as Maldonado.

"It's been awesome," said Barrett of Maldonado. "We're like brothers. My older brother (Luke) was going to play on the team, but tore his ACL one year and broke his leg another year. To me, Alec is like a big brother that I'm getting a chance to play with."

"With me and Alec on the field, we just know where each other is going to be," Barrett said. "We don't even have to look. I just play the ball and I know he's there."

"They've been playing like that all year long," Beadell said. "Those guys have played hard all year long, and it's paid off."

Both, in fact, had older brothers who played in the Lake City program, with Austin Maldonado graduating in 2012 and Luke Barrett in 2013.

They've also gained a lot of help from Beadell, who has coached them for their entire stay in the Lake City program.

"He's a good guy," said Barrett of Beadell. "He just pushes us hard every day in practice and from there, to just keep getting better. Whenever we've got something going on, we just go to him for help."

That includes everything - not just soccer.

"It's not even about soccer for us," Maldonado said. "He's always there for us, talking to other teachers for us, helping with personal stuff. We can go to him for just about everything."

The group didn't have to go far to watch Post Falls High win the boys state soccer title in 2012, as that tournament was held at Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene.

"They had a lot of good players on that team like we do," Maldonado said. "I think we've got just as good of a chance of winning state as they did."

"Their main player was Timmy Mueller," Barrett said. "And he just killed it, and everyone knows how good he is."

Starting Thursday, the rest of the state will get a chance to see just how good this group is.

State high school soccer tournaments