It's a trip that's been 369 days in the making.
The Helias girls soccer team played in the Class 2 state championship game on June 1 of last year, with the Lady Crusaders giving up two goals in the final six minutes to fall 2-0 to St. Dominic.
Instead of letting that game haunt them and doom this season, the Lady Crusaders dealt with that disappointment and now find themselves in a familiar spot as they prepare for their third straight trip to the Final Four.
Helias (19-8-1) will take on Kearney (22-3-2) in the first of two Class 2 semifinals at noon today at Blue Springs South, with the Lady Crusaders just two wins from their ultimate goal.
"We've been talking about this since the end of last season," Helias coach Brad Dempsey said. "We did not like the feeling in the locker room after losing the state championship game. We didn't know what was going to happen in that game, we were going to try to beat that team, which was going to be tough. Then we get a goal called back and then with six minutes left, end up getting beat.
"... We had a great talk in the locker room, we got on the bus, we pulled into the parking lot and the girls sang the school song. Before we got off the bus we said, "We've got to do everything it takes to get back next year, and from there, we didn't talk about it. We thought about it, I'm sure, every day for a while, but we didn't talk about it."
And the Lady Crusaders didn't let anything derail those plans to this point.
"Credit all these young ladies, from the freshmen to the seniors," Dempsey said. "Everybody expected for us to get to the Final Four, and there's probably a lot of people who expect us to win (today). They have maturely handled the situation, because it's not easy to meet expectations."
In order to prepare for the challenges to come, the Lady Crusaders took an already-tough schedule and beefed it up even more. They took some lumps, suffering eight losses, but came through the season battled-tested after facing double digits in the number of ranked opponents.
Dempsey said the team has improved at every stage of the season, with this part of the season being the time to peak.
"We have just a handful of players that play soccer year-round - our team is built with athletes," he said. "Our purpose of scheduling tough is for us to get an understanding of how to play at the highest level with those athletes. What we have to do to make our team effective enough to beat great teams.
"We want to fight and try to win a state championship every year, just like everybody else. We don't have the luxury of 15-20 girls playing soccer year-round like they do in St. Louis or Kansas City. We understand that. We're OK with that. But we have to play those teams, and we feel comfortable playing those teams because of how athletic our girls are. The learning curve of how to play, they learn it playing those games. We got beat eight times this year and seven out of those eight were against really good teams."
It paid dividends the last three games, in the district final and the sectional and quarterfinal rounds.
"Wins don't mean a whole bunch to me until we get into the postseason," Dempsey said. "... The last three teams we beat to get here were teams that could have beaten us. They had great records, but they didn't play the teams that we've played."
Including a 10-goal win in the first game of districts, the Lady Crusaders are now two-thirds of the way toward completing their march to a state title.
"We've said since the start of the playoffs that this is a six-game season," Dempsey said. "We've won districts, sectionals, quarterfinals and after each the girls celebrate and get their picture taken. I had someone ask me the other day, "Coach, why don't you and the coaching staff come over and get your picture taken?' I said, "We want the girls to celebrate, we want them to be happy. But when they come back over to us, it's time to focus, because that's not our goal.'
"I'm happy for them, but our goal as a coaching staff is to get them to their top goal. Hopefully we can celebrate with pictures if we can get to where that is."
The Lady Crusaders come into the Final Four healthy, something they haven't been able to say for large parts of the season.
"We went through a run of injuries in a very significant part of the season that we just didn't talk about," Dempsey said. "We always say, "Don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses,' the old John Wooden saying. That's just the way that we do things and our girls buy in."
Getting back to the title game won't be easy.
"Kearney is a great team," Dempsey said. "Anybody that doesn't know about Kearney, I stayed up all night again watching film on them (Wednesday) night, and they're just a great team. I think that it's going to be a battle.
"The difference in the game is going to be the team that gets more restarts and the best scoring opportunities. That may be the smallest window of a girl getting around somebody and hitting a shot, just like the game's meant to be played."