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When Tim Helvey moved to Anchorage last summer for a job to teach at West High and coach its girls basketball team, he came with visions of turning the Eagles into winners. Using an optimistic approach, Helvey was thrilled to take over the program, despite its ugly past. West has sported a wretched 7-53 overall record over the last three seasons, with just one Cook Inlet Conference victory in 36 games. "Losing has become habitual here," he said. "But my goal is to get it to where it hurts to lose." It could take a few seasons for the girls to buy into his new system, Helvey said. But so far, so good. The Eagles are off to their best start in years, taking a 3-4 record into tonight's CIC opener against Eagle River. "It's a good start for us," he said. "I want to see us competitive." That would be a huge change from the last 12 seasons, in which West has gone without winning a conference title. They've never won a state championship. The only title the program has won came in 1973 when West beat Monroe Catholic of Fairbanks for the Western Alaska title, a division with only Anchorage and Fairbanks teams. West made it to the final the following season, but ever since it's been caught in a 33-year drought. The Eagles' history didn't shock Helvey. He was well aware of their losing ways when he moved here from the Kenai Peninsula, where he taught at Ninilchik and served as the Wolverines' girls assistant coach for two seasons. "Knowing (West's) record, I wanted the challenge of turning a program around," he said about the squad that starts three sophomores. "I love sports and I love competitiveness, and you always envision the goal of a state title. But it's going to take some patience." A proven winner in Class 2A basketball and wrestling, he's known for taking a program with mediocre talent and turning it into a state champion. In 2005, he led the Bristol Bay girls to their first state championship since 1992, when the Angels stopped Ninilchik's dynasty of five straight titles. The Angels came close the year before, finishing as runners-up to Ninilchik. During his first coaching stint for Ilwaco High's wrestling program in Washington, he led the state's 1A laughingstock to a school-best 12th place finish at the state tournament while producing its first state-champion wrestler. The program struggled so much, Helvey said, some teams would send only junior varsity teams to compete against Ilwaco's varsity. When he departed for a teaching internship at Bristol Bay in 2002, he left Ilwaco a respectable program, but it hasn't yielded a state champion since that 1998 season. After four years of coaching Bristol Bay, his teaching position was cut. He applied for a job at West, hoping to get his foot in the door for the girls coaching job, but that didn't pan out. Instead, he took a job with rival Ninilchik. But after two years assisting head coach Dan Leman, his teaching job was trimmed to a half-time position. "That didn't pay the bills," Helvey said. Then the opportunity he waited two years for came when the coaching job at West opened again in 2007. Before long, he was hired. He packed for Anchorage, excited to take over a team that's had a carousel of coaches -- he is West's 14th coach in 36 seasons.But this season won't be a one-and-done deal.Helvey said he's here for the long haul. So far he's noticed only one major difference between coaching 4A basketball here and in the off-the-road village of Bristol Bay."We take busses instead of planes," he laughed.