That’s what Lewiston boys’ soccer coach Mike McGraw said about the first day of fall practices, which began Monday.

McGraw could have been excused for admitting that the beginning of this season is different than any of his other 34 years at the helm of the Blue Devils program. He had never had to follow up a state championship season before, but that’s just the situation McGraw finds himself in now.

But, said McGraw, this season is “like anything else.”

Like every Monday in mid-August in the state of Maine, it’s a new school year and a new fall season.

For the Blue Devils, that means a new experience of being the hunted, rather than the hunter.

For cross-river rival Edward Little, that means a new coach. For the Red Eddies’ fellow Auburn team, St. Dominic Academy, that means a new conference in which to compete.

For the coaches of all three teams, excitement was the foremost emotion Monday.

“This morning we had a quick conditioning session, and I’m very excited after it,” said new EL head coach Tim Mains, who took the job just last week. “I think that not only do we have a lot of talent on the field — I’ve heard about quite a few kids that are super-talented — they’re all just really good kids.”

Mains was still getting to know some players’ names by the time Monday’s afternoon practice session began. It’s an inevitability of being behind the 8-ball. But thankfully for him, he knows some of the players from coaching the JV basketball team at EL last year.

Junior Tyler Morin is one of those players that Mains already knew coming into his first season as coach at his alma mater.

“He’s very competitive, always wants to win. That’s a good thing,” Morin said of Mains as a coach. “And he makes us work hard. That’s another big thing.”

Mains graduated from EL in 2011, which isn’t too long ago in relative terms. But it’s far enough in the past that Morin only knew of Mains’ playing career that “he scored quite a few goals his senior year.”

Mains said he doesn’t know exactly what he has in his team after only one day of practice. He’s looking for his players’ best effort to find that out.

St. Dom’s head coach Marty Bressler is looking for the same thing from his players. Bressler is entering his sixth year with the Saints, but this will be the first year that his St. Dom’s team plays in the Western Maine Conference.

The Saints will be entering a challenging conference with an inexperienced roster.

“We’ve got a lot more numbers than I thought, which is good, but really young, lot of freshmen,” Bressler said. “A lot of freshmen, not many seniors. Will definitely be interesting in the new conference.

“The biggest thing for them is that they don’t feel any pressure.”

The Saints begin their return to the WMC in less than three weeks against Fryeburg Academy, which Bressler believes will be a formidable opponent. And it doesn’t get any easier from there.

“I think for us, it’s definitely just going to be one game at a time, let’s see what we can do, let’s see if we can try to make a run for the playoffs,” Bressler said. “I like this kind of challenge. I think it’ll be good for the players. They’re excited.”

Despite the Saints’ youth, Bressler said he already notices a good chemistry among the players after just one practice, which will be important during the season’s inevitable growing pains.

Chemistry is already in bloom for the Blue Devils, who bring players from multiple cultures onto one pitch. It’s a coming together that propelled last year’s Blue Devils to a state title, and one that will be needed to help this year’s Lewiston side push past their past.

“You could tell they’re very excited about playing again. They’re ready,” McGraw said. “I think they’re ready to make their own identity, be their own team.”

“It feels weird,” senior Ben Musese said of not seeing his departed teammates at practice Monday. “I wish I could have them again, another year, but it’s impossible. They’re gone.

“This year we’re going to focus on this year.”

Musese is one of the few returning players for McGraw, and he admitted that he bears the responsibility of trying to repeat last year’s success.

“We have to work hard, especially us seniors,” Musese said. “They’re depending on us a lot.”

At Lewiston’s practice, no one was more excited for the new season to begin than McGraw, who said the afterglow of last season’s championship lasted seemingly into the summer.

“I know that we’ve been waiting a long time to get started. I wanted to get last year out of the way,” McGraw, who waited a long time for his breakthrough title, said. “This opened up the same way it opens up every year. No difference. We didn’t have a parade. We didn’t have people out here taking pictures and throwing confetti. We’re just out here sweating and playing and going after each other.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

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