The Parkland boys basketball team has had a successful run as of late. The Trojans are the two-time defending District 11 Class AAAA champions, and are favorites to bring home a third straight in two weeks.

But even with the good teams, and the district titles, Parkland could not get over the conference tournament hump.

After not winning a title in the 12-season history of the Lehigh Valley Conference despite five appearances in the championship game, the 2015 Parkland squad wouldn't be denied.

Winning three straight games, first defeating Whitehall, then holding off a pesky Allen team, then grabbing the crown by dominating the conference's second-best team in Liberty, the Trojans finally have the league championship they've been without for over a decade, since a 2002 Mountain Valley Conference crown.

And it comes for head coach Andy Stephens with possibly his most talented team he has had at Parkland, but with a young and somewhat inexperienced group.

The Trojans lost a core of their program last year to graduation. Jimmy Hahn, Nick Rindock, Nick Salvaggi and Justin Zajko were all two-year starters and made heavy contributions to the varsity team for at least three years. That group lost in the last Lehigh Valley Conference final a year ago.

So with several new players in the starting lineup, and immediate contributors, Parkland took a big step for the program with plenty of new faces.

"It's been a while since [Parkland] won a league title," said Stephens. "So we feel pretty good about this. These kids set goals at the start of the year, and we accomplished one tonight. There's still some other ones to get to.

"Sam [Iorio] and Devante [Cross] are really the only ones with any varsity experience. This is new to a lot of them and it's a lot of pressure that they're dealing with, but they've handled it extremely well. Just like last year, these kids are hungry and want to win."

Now with a conference title to their names, any kind of pressure or frustration may have been exulted, and these Trojans can focus on the much bigger goals ahead of them in 2015.