AUBURN – They’ve seen their gym packed full and they’ve seen busloads of fans follow them 35 miles up the road to Augusta.

Led by an all-senior starting five, St. Dom’s won a school-record 14 games and played in the Augusta Civic Center for the first time before losing to eventual Western C champion Jay in arguably the best game of last year’s tournament.

Now, with that nucleus graduated, this year’s squad is hearing the whispers about how it’s back to the program’s mediocre ways this season.

“I think everybody expects it to be one glory year and then back to 5-12, but I think we can be competitors every game and win a bunch,” coach Dan DeBruin said.

Justin Fongemie and Josh Hixon are the only two remaining regulars from what a lot of people, DeBruin might call them skeptics, might consider the glory days of St. Dom’s basketball. Both know this is an important year for the program to establish itself as a perennial contender in the Western Maine Conference.

“I think this year will probably determine that, because everyone thought last year was the year,'” Hixon said.

“Last year was a great experience for us,” he added. “We had an opportunity to be on the team that’s gone the furthest. We know what it’s like, and we want to keep striving to get there again this year.”

The Saints’ senior captains know that that will mean some big adjustments on their part, particularly in the leadership roles they’ve assumed this year.

“We actually had a little talk about that,” DeBruin said. “As juniors last year they were playing with five seniors the whole year, so even though they were upperclassmen they didn’t really have to take too much of a leadership role. Now, coming into this year, some of the younger kids are looking up to them in so many ways, in ways that they don’t even see it.”

“I think they’re expectations are a lot higher because they’ve been there,” he added. “Hopefully it made them hungrier.”

DeBruin hopes the duo will at least be hungrier for their offense. Coming off the bench last year and playing with all-conference players such as Ian Pullen and Chris Rainville, neither was asked to create their own offense. Now, the Saints need them to shoot the rock as much as, if not more than, their teammates.

It’s taking some convincing.

“Both of them, still, I bet you they’re only averaging three or four shots a game,” DeBruin said. “As senior leaders and two of the better, if not the two best, players on the team, they have to know that offensively we need them to step up. And I think that’s the hardest adjustment. They’re so used to just letting the offense coming to them, whereas now we’re asking them to go out and get it.”

“We’ve started to do jell,” Fongemie said. “We’re starting to score more points. Early preseason it was pretty ugly, but we’re starting to score some buckets now.”

The Saints need to jell quickly to get their young team off to a good start. Their schedule is tough, with a majority of their early games on the road and some difficult match-ups against a couple of strong Class B teams in Falmouth and Poland later in the season.

Some, as DeBruin noted, might foresee a return to the 5-13 days at St. Dom’s, but the two captains have bigger plans.

“We want to have at least an over .500 season and at least one game in Augusta,” Fongemie said.

“At least one win in Augusta,” Hixon added.