LOWELL — When Dave Brown took over the St. Mary’s boys basketball program in 2014, he had two immediate objectives.
One was to win a state championship, which the Spartans accomplished in 2016. The other was to move up to Division 3. That happened before the season started.
“Once we won a title,” Brown said, “I wanted to move up.”
The Spartan boys joined the girls, who went up a division several years ago and have won two Division 3 state titles under coach Jeff Newhall. Both baseball and softball are in Division 3 (and baseball goes five levels, when you include 1A) and the boys and girls hockey teams are in Division 1.
“We wanted to move up last year, but we got denied,” Brown said. “We want to keep it up. Hopefully, we can win a title at this level too.”
Brown, who played for the Spartans back when the state only had three divisions, said the biggest difference in the levels is the depth of the teams, and the strength of Division 3.
“We wanted to challenge ourselves,” Brown said. “And it was a challenge.
“You look at the tournament pairings and in Division 4, you identify the top three or four teams that might have a chance to win it. In this division, that goes from three to four to about seven and eight.
“Look at Watertown,” Brown said. “They’re the seventh seed, and they’re going to the (TD) Garden.”
A quick glance at the Division bracket proves Brown’s point. Of the 15 teams that qualified, nine played .650 ball or better. The top three seeds were all 17-3, which included the No. 1 Spartans, which won a three-way coin toss with Lynnfield and Hamilton Wenham to draw the top seed.
Bedford, the team St. Mary’s beat to reach the Tsongas, was 15-5.
Then came three 14-6 teams: Whittier, Pentucket and Watertown. The Raiders, habitually at the top of Division 3, lost that three-way coin toss to drop down to No. 7.
Another team St. Mary’s face en route to Saturday’s game was 13-7 Newburyport.
“You look at all those teams are there are quite a few where you say to yourself you don’t want to face them right away,” Brown said.
Brown’s feelings were validated by the games his teams played in the tournament. In the 74-65 win over Bedford, the Buccaneers wouldn’t go away. And even in the 68-52 win over Newburyport, Brown felt the team struggled.
“In this division,” he said, “there’s no game where you walk into the gym and feel as if you should win handily.”
