GRAY — For Mike Andreasen and his Gray-New Gloucester girls’ basketball team, the start of the season has a different feel this year.

“Usually,” said Andreasen, “we’re the team doing the chasing. This year, we’ve got people chasing us.”

That’s because the Patriots won the Class B South championship last winter – their first regional title in 14 years – before losing to Houlton in the state title game.

With four starters back and some depth, the Patriots loom as one of the teams to beat this season. And now they believe that they can win.

Which is why Andreasen – in his sixth year as Gray-New Gloucester’s head coach – is doing his best to make sure his players remain focused on the task ahead. A championship game in February isn’t on his list of things to talk about just yet.

“We’re really downplaying the expectations of where we want to be,” he said. “I think teams can make the mistake of looking ahead to the end of the journey, whether they get there or not. I want us to enjoy the season.”

You can forgive the fans for looking so far ahead. “This is a community where we don’t win a lot of state championships,” said Andreasen. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hoopla.”

The Patriots haven’t defended a championship since they won back-to-back regional titles in 2001 and 2002 (each time losing in the state final to Mt. Desert Island).

Andreasen has had his teams moving forward in each of the last four seasons, always advancing one step beyond where they finished the year before.

The Patriots have four seniors – Skye Conley, Alicia Dumont, Grace Kariotis and Izzy DeTroy – who work hard to keep the team grounded.

“I like the way we work together and bond together,” said Kariotis. “We’re very close-knit. It’s like I have 21 other sisters. It’s an unbelievable feeling. I could come to practice in the worst mood and they will lift me up every time.”

Conley, a post player, said the team has worked hard to build that bond and will continue to focus on the task ahead – and it’s not necessarily concerning a Gold Ball.

“We’re focusing on just one game at a time, that’s something that we did the past few years,” she said. ” We don’t want to think too much about the future because what gets us there is what we do now.”

The four seniors make this team go. Conley is a very good inside player. Dumont, who missed some games because of a knee injury last year, is a dangerous shooter. Kariotis is the team’s best 3-point shooter.

And DeTroy? Well, let Andreasen tell you about her: “She doesn’t have flashy stats, she just does everything well.”

They’ve pushed each other for years and continue to do that now. It’s one of the elements that makes this team so close.

“We’re always pushing each other, whether in practice, or scrimmaging or in a game,” said DeTroy. “We foster that as a team and a program.”

Dumont said it’s important that the Patriots push each other hard all the time to keep improving as a team. They know they will face great competition all season.

And that competition knows it will face a great effort from the Patriots every night.

“They do things the right way,” said Paul True, the coach at Lake Region, one of the Patriots’ chief rivals. “That program is based on very fundamentally sound principles.”

Wells Coach Don Abbott said the Patriots are strong both mentally and physically.

“They were able to impose their will on a lot of teams last year,” he said.

“They have clearly defined roles and they play without a lot of ego. They play with a singular purpose and mindset.”

Andreasen likes it that way. He is trying to build a program that competes for a championship every year, not just once or twice.

For now, he wants the players to not worry about “what’s at the end of the rainbow” but to take the time to appreciate what they’re doing.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll enjoy the ride.”

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