Seven consecutive regional high school basketball championships? Get out of town. Utterly ridiculous.

Ten straight titles? Impossible. You can’t be serious. Say no to drugs.

It happened. Again. I know it happened, because in the space of four hours Saturday evening, I watched it with my own four eyes.

Though not one of its vintage efforts (frightening that they’ve become so good, so dependable for so long that style points seem to matter), Valley High of Bingham cut down the nets at Augusta Civic Center after a 43-36 victory over Hyde School in the Western Class D boys’ final.

It’s a rite of February the Cavaliers have celebrated each winter since current senior star Mark Gaudet was a sixth-grader.

Valley has lost only one basketball game during that block of history. Heck, seven years is long enough for some folks to have endured four failed marriages, and the Cavaliers have come out on the wrong end of the scoreboard one lousy, stinkin’ time? It’s completely insane.

Not to be outdone, the Dirigo girls’ basketball program subsequently stepped into the Western Class C spotlight and shattered the only kind of record that remains unbroken for the Cougars: its own.

After derailing Hall-Dale for the third time in three weeks, 40-33, Dirigo stands alone with the only streak of regional championships in Maine hardwood history to hit double digits.

No other Western Class C program has celebrated a title on the Augusta court since 1994, when Madison did the hugging and high-fiving. Don’t kick yourself if you can’t remember even one detail about that ’94 game. In fact, if you can remember anything you accomplished 10 years ago, congratulate yourself.

That probably puts you one step ahead of Dirigo freshmen Abby Fenstermacher, Katie Hutchinson, Megan Russell, Katherine Gagne and Shannon Daley. They hadn’t even started kindergarten yet.

Know how many basketball games Dirigo lost in that two-thirds of a lifetime for most of its players?

Ten.

Here’s a heaping helping of perspective: Three teams that made the tournament lost at least 10 games THIS YEAR, with one, Georges Valley, actually making it to the quarterfinals.

Oh, and four of Dirigo’s defeats in its era of excellence unfolded at the Bangor Auditorium in a little exhibition known as the state title game. Probably we can find it in our heart to forgive those, eh?

Watching the two hoop factories hammer out these ho-hum wins and fully recognizing what foregone conclusions they were, I wonder if any of us truly appreciate this decade of dominance.

Put together a strong junior high boys’ program, keep six or seven of those kids together through their high school years and back-to-back titles aren’t inconceivable. Get the right combination of girls together, when many are physically mature and intelligent enough to start as freshmen or sophomores, and talk of a three-peat is at least logical even if overly enthusiastic.

Beyond that, though, c’mon, get real.

To win tight tournament games, you should need battle-tested seniors on the floor. That means your team of two years from now spends most of its time at the civic center sitting on its collective can, standing occasionally to applaud or pat an incoming player on the back but never playing.

Unlike professional sports, in which the richest teams may buy one, two or seven players each offseason to fill any perceived voids, high school teams are expected to have down times and dry spells.

You may remember last year being touted as the open window of opportunity for every Class D boys’ program that doesn’t feature students from Caratunk, Moscow and The Forks. Do-everything point guard Nick Pelotte, twin terrors Jason and Luke Hartwell and soft-handed, 6-foot-9 center Brian Andre all had graduated.

This is the year, Elan. Get ’em now, Rangeley. No better time than the present, Buckfield.

Twenty-two wins later, capped by its second straight smiting of Bangor Christian in the state final, Valley vanquished all those silly thoughts and more.

In Valley’s world, basketball season doesn’t begin at Thanksgiving and end winter vacation week. It’s a way of life. Kids actually play pick-up games, year-round, where they actually learn to share the ball. Radical stuff.

Dirigo, likewise, clubbed everyone over the head with the planks it was supposed to use to “rebuild” the program this year. Only one senior, Amanda Law, stepped on the floor in Thursday’s overtime win over Jay or Saturday’s encore, and she’s not a starter. Alexa Kaubris, Jennifer Harvey and Brooke Weston are the lone juniors.

Coach Gavin Kane is one of the best in the local business and shows no signs of slowing down.

Twelve titles in a row, anyone? Thirteen, even?

Call me crazy, but it’s more likely than not.

Kalle Oakes is sports editor and can be reached by e-mail at koakes