Kennebunk football coach Keith Noel talks to players halfway through the first practice Monday. The Rams won the Class B championship last year and have 18 returning seniors. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

In the unlit corner of Linnell Gymnasium at 8:30 Monday morning, with a heavy gray sky outside, the Thornton Academy football players were on one knee, their full attention on Coach Kevin Kezal. It was the first day of preseason camp and Kezal, beginning his 26th year as the Trojans’ head coach, wasn’t mincing worlds.

Thornton has the same goal every season, he said. Win the Class A championship.

“And let me tell you, coming off a state title, it’s tough to do,” Kezal said. “We’ve won six titles since 2012 and we’ve only repeated once. It’s hard to repeat.”

Senior lineman Henry Mahoney said he and his teammates welcome the challenge to win back-to-back titles, which Thornton did in 2014 and 2015.

“We don’t run from it. We feel good this year,” Mahoney said.

Thornton Academy is one of the three southern Maine teams that start the 2024 season as a defending state champion. About 11 miles to the south of Thornton’s Saco campus, Kennebunk High brings back 18 seniors from its Class B championship team. One more exit down the I-95 turnpike and you come to Wells, home of the Class D champion Warriors.

On the first official day of fall preseason for Maine’s high school athletic teams, the goal is to set the tone for the season, lay out expectations for behavior on and off the field, and  celebrate the start of a new season.

At Kennebunk, Coach Keith Noel said he didn’t even mention the possibility of a repeat when his players reported at 7 a.m. Noel didn’t talk about 2023 when, as the school’s first-year head coach, he led the Rams to their first state title since 1991. Instead he sent a message to this year’s large, 18-player senior class.

“What we did talk about was that for the seniors, this was their last chance to have a first day, so take advantage of the opportunity,” Noel said.

Kaden Stevens, the Rams’ returning starter at center and a key defensive lineman, said he was “antsy” leading up to practice.

“Really excited to just get at it. Like I was itching to go,” Stevens said.

Stevens and fellow senior Jonathan Hines, a returning starter at tight end and defensive end, were willing to address the “repeat” question. They both said they expect Class B South to be stronger overall, pointing to Massabesic and Westbrook as teams that showed significant improvement in 2023. Westbrook nearly upset the Rams in the South semifinal.

“We’re feeling pretty good and we’ll see what happens,” Stevens said. “I mean, you never know but as teammates we feel we have a good shot.”

Hines said he liked Kennebunk’s Day 1 attitude and approach, noting here are several starting positions up for grabs.

“Everyone wants that starting spot. Everyone here wants playing time. Everyone here wants to prove themselves and I saw a lot of great guys ready to compete,” Hines said. “And I think what makes a great state championship roster is just everyone here at practice working hard.”

At Thornton, 10 all-Class A South players return, including quarterback Wyatt Benoit and Mahoney, who was a second-team lineman on both sides of the ball.

The Trojans also remember they started last season with a loss to Portland and were an uncharacteristic 5-4 (against a very tough schedule) in the regular season before finding their footing and eventually beating Portland, 24-14, in the Class A championship game.

Max Andrews, one of the state’s best receivers, runs through a drill during the Kennebunk High football practice Monday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

“Winning it once is one thing but winning it twice is another,” Benoit said. “It will be very difficult but we do have a lot of returners, so we’ll see what happens.”

Mahoney had a personal reason to feel good about being back on the football field. In March he broke a leg while throwing the discus.

“It’s great to be back out here, man. We had a spring camp. I wasn’t able to play then but I’m able to play now so it feels good,” Mahoney said. “This is the game that feels the most like a family – the most team game – and that’s why I love it.”

Down in Wells, Tim Roche, also starting his 26th year as head coach, is telling his team he’d like another state championship. Last year was the Warriors’ fifth championship since 2011, a 22-21 win against Foxcroft Academy. And Wells knows how to repeat, winning three straight from 2016-18, the first in Class C and the next two in Class D.

“I’m very proud of last year’s state championship but my goal is to win another state championship,” Roche told his team when it assembled for its first preseason practice at 5 p.m. “And the only way we’re going to do it is if we all come together as a team and do the right thing. When we don’t do that, we don’t win.”

Senior fullback/middle linebacker Eli Potter is ready to add to a Wells family legacy. This is the 11th straight season a Potter brother has been on the team. Older brothers Nolan (2014-17) and Jonah (2017-20) were also standouts.

“It’s such an honor. I’ve been watching these guys all through growing up since I was a little, little kid, always dreaming of being the big-time senior at Wells High School and now we finally get the chance to go out here and play, and I’m so thrilled and so pumped,” Potter said.

When Potter isn’t carrying the ball, he’ll be blocking for senior halfback Dom Buxton, another talented runner and cornerback on defense.

“Feels great. Excited to be back out here,” Buxton said. “Just trying to get another state to bring back for the hometown.”