"It's on everyone's mind," said Coach Tanner Grover about his team's chances of getting back to the state championship game.

"As always, we'll be taking it one game at a time," said Grover, who enters his fifth season as head coach of the Boothbay Region High School girls varsity basketball team. In February, BRHS lost to Narraguagus, 33-25, in the Class C state championship game after a stellar regular season. Overall, the Lady Seahawks finished the season at 20-2.

Grover knows that the rest of the Mountain Valley Conference will be aiming to knock off the defending South C champions and Grover knows that there are some teams that could do it on any given night.

"Looking at the schedule, we have a tough game right away (Dec. 9) opening the season at Mountain Valley," said Grover. "They are kind of like us; they like to play a lot of players and that court is a tough place to play."

Monmouth, the only MVC team to beat Boothbay last year during the regular season — at Monmouth on a controversial ending — will be another team Grover considers to be a contender. Monmouth returns two important junior guards, Tia Day and Hannah Anderson.

"One of their coaches at the preseason tournament up there after Thanksgiving asked if we were ready to be the bull's eye this season," said Grover. "I kind of deflected him with my answer, just by saying 'We'll be OK.'"

Other teams the Lady Seahawks will face that Grover considers to be tough will be Madison and Lisbon in the MVC and, in the tournament, Old Orchard Beach from the Western Maine Conference.

Why are the Lady Seahawks considered a favorite to return to the state championship game? Boothbay returns four of its starting five from last season. Two of those players, 6'1" sophomore Faith Blethen and 5'11" junior Page Brown, made the all-conference first team last season and Brown was named the MVC Player of the Year. Kate Friant, the Lady Seahawks' 5'8" point guard, was a conference honorable mention last year.

"All three of those players have put a lot of time into improving their game," said Grover. "They will do the bulk of our scoring, but we also have players who can contribute points during our games." Grover said three seniors — Angie Perkins (5'11"), Alexis Welch (5'10") and Nicole Clarke (5'11") — are capable of scoring when needed. Other players who will see a lot of playing time will be junior guards Sydney Meader (5'8") and Sydney Mercier (5'3").

Grover said the preseason hasn't been without some concerns.

"Of the 17 girls in the program, three of them are dealing with injuries. Angie Perkins should be back in the early part of the season after suffering a concussion in soccer. Junior Jo Shaw (5'9") is dealing with a finger she shattered during field hockey. And Alexis Davison, a sophomore junior varsity player, has a fractured elbow. It kinds of makes practice difficult for both teams."

The varsity roster will also include senior Elisabeth Wright (5'3"), junior Tori Morin (5'3") and freshman Chloe Arsenault (5'5"). The junior varsity roster will include Wright, Mercier, Shaw, Morin, Arsenault, Davison, freshmen Josey Smith and Maddy Faulkingham and sophomores Madison Barter and Hannah Gentry. Team manager is ReAnna Heino.

Grover said the team has been trying to find some consistency during the preseason.

"We are working on our transition offense," said Grover. "Last year, we settled for setting up the offense. With our size advantage, we will be looking to push the ball more as we know we will be seeing a lot of zone defenses this year."

Brian Blethen returns as an assistant coach. Matt Brewer will again coach the junior varsity team and newcomer and former Seahawk player Nathan House has been helping out at practices. "Those three have been great so far this season," said Grover.

"We return an intelligent bunch of players," said Grover. "They do nothing but work every step of the way. We'll be ready, but it will also be — do we play our game or theirs?"