LYNN — Over the last four years, the St. Mary’s boys basketball team brought a lot of success to 35 Tremont Street including a state championship. After losing in the state final last season, all five seniors from that game have graduated, and coach David Brown Sr. has a new team to compete with.

Heading into this season, the Spartans on paper are young, and with five starting spots and minutes available, the team has put in the work from the start.

“We knew going into the offseason that we had a lot of young kids who were going to compete for playing time. We saw a big progression from the summer league to the fall league with the kids getting used to the game speed and getting used to playing at a higher level,” Brown said.

Brown said all off-season and leading up to the first practice he was trying to think about how he will coach this team. The group that graduated he’s known and coached from as early as second grade.

“I’ve been sitting at home and work and having things run through my mind about how I’m going to coach this team. The kids who just graduated I coached most of them since they were in the second grade. Practices ran for themselves because I had them doing drills that I use in high school practices. So instinctively they knew what I wanted and expected,” Brown said. “The group I have now at the start of the year I had to really go back to the details. It’s motivating and it’s making me think differently.”

As motivating as it is for Brown, it’s just as motivating for the players who are fighting to fill the big shoes that were left behind.

In the last two weeks, the Spartans played Lynn Tech in a jamboree and then opened its season against Andover. Brown mentioned he’s seen improvements from the two games.

“Going into the season I wasn’t too optimistic about how well we would do since we lost a lot of players,” Brown said. “I knew we had a young group who could hopefully get better over the year. However, to see how much we’ve improved over the first two weeks of the season is crazy.”

“We scrimmaged Lynn Tech and after the game, we sat down and watched the film. We didn’t play that bad, we just made some mental mistakes and were in the wrong spots at the wrong time,” Brown said. “The kids cleaned it up in a week and it was like a different team that was out there against Andover. To go out there and beat a Division I team that is usually one of the better teams in the state that is coached well, was very pleasing as a coaching staff to see the improvement we made.”

A player who is ready to step up is Javihan “JJ” Martinez. Martinez put up 30 points in the win against Andover, but for Brown, it was the other things he did that he was impressed with.

“JJ knows he’s our go-to guy in regards to scoring. In addition to scoring he even admitted he realized players in the past also stuffed the stat sheet,” Brown said. “We were pleased he had 30 points on a low number of shots, but also had six rebounds, four assists, and four steals. He did more than just score, and he helped make his teammates better. He knows for us to win, he’s going to need to fill the stat sheet for us.”

When asked what he likes about Martinez’s playstyle, Brown talked about his ability to score against anyone due to his size and strength.

“He’s under control and he doesn’t force shots. Him being 6’1 and very strong, he’s a nightmare matchup for a lot of teams. If they put a big man on him, he’ll take them out to the perimeter and either make a shot or go by you. If you put a smaller guy on him, he’ll take them to the post,” Brown said.

With guys competing for minutes, Brown said the practices this year have been “very competitive.”

“This is the first year in a while we have guys that are fighting for minutes and starting roles going into the season,” Brown said. “The ‘23 class had their roles established by their sophomore and junior years. This year we return two kids who got a lot of varsity minutes in JJ and Donel Kabongo Mutombo.”

Brown also highlighted a few players who should have an impact this season:

“We have Kyle Rush who’s a senior captain who had a good night against Andover making a couple of big shots. Josiah Quintana was on the bench last year, but saw what we did and he’s going to be competing for varsity minutes and a starting role,” Brown said. “Jake Fortier had a great JV season last year and had a great opening night scoring 10 points and only one turnover in 32 minutes. We also have Devell Pamplin who moved here from New Jersey and is a great addition to the program. Lastly, Rowan Merryman has been around the program since the sixth grade and now as a freshman, he’ll play a part.”

Losing your entire starting five that helped win you a state championship is hard to replace. However, Brown and the Spartans are using everyone’s doubts as motivation to fuel their season.

“I just love the challenge of competing with this group. Everyone locally and probably state-wide probably thinks we’ll be down knowing what we lost and all the success we had the last few years,” Brown said. “The coaches and the players are motivated to show we are still the same St. Mary’s team. We’re going to defend, score, and rebound and hopefully, we’re going to be successful.”

When you play for St. Mary’s, the expectation is to win. Brown said he and the team’s goals are the same as they always are.

“We want to be successful in the league, challenge for the Lynn City championship and then take it one game at a time once we get to the state tournament,” Brown said. “At St. Mary’s we are held to a high standard. No one is going to feel bad for us because we lost certain players and we don’t want them to feel bad. We’re up for the challenge and we will compete every time we step on the floor.”

St. Mary’s next game is on Tuesday when it hosts Cardinal Spellman with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m.