Usually clean-shaven, Henry Porter didn’t shave for a month.

When the Pirates girls’ basketball team asked him after a thrilling win to grow out his beard, he obliged — and a seven-game winning streak followed.

But on Friday night, after the team was toppled by Seattle Christian, both head coach Porter and assistant coach Gary Means gave their bushy facial hair the chop.

It was bittersweet for the men, who, though glad to see their cheeks again, were understandably disappointed by the Pirates’ loss to the top-ranked Warriors 76-49. But the Pirates are still a team on the move. Even after their loss to Seattle Christian, they’re ranked 10th of 1A teams statewide.

The Pirates made it to the state playoffs last year and in 2006, and with a seasoned and powerful team, coaches, athletes and parents are confident they’ll do it again this year. A game on Friday against Lynden Christian, number two statewide, is sure to test their mettle.

“These girls are going places,” said Steve Swope, father of basketball player Chrissy Swope.

The team is more mature and cohesive this year, said head coach Henry Porter, and each athlete on the varsity team is a force to be reckoned with on the court.

Unlike the Pirate boys’ basketball team, which has a dozen athletes on its varsity roster, the girls have only 16 players in varsity and JV combined.

“We don’t have a huge bench, but I would say that we have seven girls who are very talented” starting for varsity, Porter said.

It’s uniquely Vashon, he noted, to have a team of athletes who have played together as long as these girls have. Some began as early as first-grade, in Vashon Island Junior Basketball.

The Pirates’ current coaches both have long-standing relationships with their players. Both fathers of current varsity players, Porter and Means coached their daughters’ teams for years. Porter, Thriftway’s produce manager, has coached a few of the athletes who are now juniors and seniors since they were in fifth-grade. As they moved to middle school, so did he.

Means, a molecular scientist, shares a similar bond with the Pirates, having coached many of the varsity athletes on Amateur Athletic Union teams from fifth- through eighth-grades.

“There’s a trust between me and the girls,” Means said. “I’ve really benefited from being with that group of girls and able to influence them when they were young. Some of the things we worked so hard on for years are starting to bear fruit.”

The continuity in coaching surely has helped the team succeed, but both coaches were quick to cast the spotlight on the capable hoopsters themselves.

“I really do think this group of girls has a unique bond — there’s not a lot of friction on the team,” Means said. “A lot of their success is because this team is very athletic, very coachable; they’re very willing to trust one another and make adjustments.”

Porter said the athletes keep their cool under pressure and always exhibit sportsmanship.

“One of the great things about this team is even after a tough loss, they’re able to let it go and play the next game,” he said.

In fact, in Saturday’s game with Cascade Christian, the Pirates came up against referees who called foul after foul against them.

The Cougars shot 41 free shots during the game, Porter said, whereas in a typical game a team might shoot six to 15 free throws.

“The other team was throwing free throws left and right,” he said. “It’s a testament to the team that they overcame all that and still beat them by 11 points — 65-54 — and were focused.”

The team’s perseverance has been demonstrated in the past few weeks when athletes took nasty knocks to the nose or suffered sprains, but shook it off and kept playing.

“These girls are amazing because they play through stuff,” Porter said. “They’re not a bunch of wimps; they’re sports players. We don’t look at them as boys or girls, we look at them as basketball players, and that’s how they like it.”

Junior Chrissy Swope is in her 10th year playing basketball. She was a member of last year’s Pirate team that went to state and anticipates an equally successful season this year. It’s the skill of her teammates and the strength of the coaching staff that will carry them all the way, she added.

“We’re more experienced this year,” she said. “We’ve had a year to figure out our plays, and we’ve got them down for sure.”

Means coached Swope in club ball for several years, while Porter has been her coach since she was in middle school.

“Before the game, they always want to make it sound like it’s not a big deal, and we’ll do fine, but during the game they get really into it,” she said of her coaches. “They want to keep us calm but make sure we win.”

Means said he and Porter have a complementary coaching relationship that has strengthened the Pirates this season.

“I tend to watch the game as a guy who worries about what we’re doing defensively, and he’s watching it as a guy who worries about how we’re going to score,” he said. “Henry’s got a great heart; he loves the game, and he really understands it. He tries to keep it fun and at the same time keep it competitive.”

Means said he’s looking forward to making improvements based on the team’s loss to Seattle Christian.

“Friday’s loss was pretty disappointing,” he said, “but it was a couple little things that brought us down. It wasn’t about heart or hustle or even athleticism. … Any weaknesses that were exposed, we’ll make those adjustments for the next time we play them.”

Vashon has another game against Seattle Christian on Feb. 3 at home.

Pirate Swope said every game counts in the coming weeks, as Vashon makes its steady climb to the state tournament.

“In the coming weeks, even as we’re playing the teams that are really easy for us, we’re still going to play it as if we’re in the state tournament,” Swope said.