At a hotel in Foxborough last weekend the Martha’s Vineyard eighth grade boys basketball team decided to make a statement, bringing out the buzz cutters and giving each other mullets.

They were preparing for the state tournament, which one year ago they lost in the finals in double overtime. This year they weren’t taking any chances.

“I don’t know, I think they wanted to look like dogs out there, after being a half a second short last year,” said Jeremy Light, the team’s head coach and the assistant principal at the regional high school. “There was hair all over assistant coach Jay Napior’s hotel room.”

The look and the hard work paid off as the team went 5-0 over the weekend, beating Grafton in the state finals 49-40.

“We were down at halftime but the kids fought back,” Mr. Light said. “They love each other and really stepped up.”

Mr. Light describes the team as a family as they have been playing together since the third grade, not long after he moved to the Island and started the program. The first year was not an auspicious one, as the team notched only one victory. Neither was the next year, when they doubled the wins to two.

But they kept working and eventually gelled, winning the Cape and Island’s League title last year and again this year to make it to the state tournament.

Mr. Light’s son Jacoby Light was a standout in the state finals, hitting five three pointers.

“Our big men, Landon Lepine (6 feet 6 inches) and Connor Beeson (6 feet 4 inches) were also key, and Leo Napior was a defensive master mind. He was all over the place,” Mr. Light continued.

Usually, the Vineyard’s height is a big factor, but Mr. Light said Grafton arrived with twin towers of their own, neutralizing the paint with two kids at 6 feet 6 inches.

“But our guys never let up,” Mr. Light said, adding that the kids had the state tournament circled on their calendar at the start of the season. “They showed up determined and ready to play.”

Now that the season has come to a close, so has Mr. Light’s journey with the team as the players will move up to the high school team next year. But he won’t be resting on the sidelines.

“I’m going to start up a girls league for seventh graders,” he said. “I have a daughter who is just getting interested in the sport.”