BANGOR – Aside from losing a few key players to graduation, the Bangor boys tennis team had a lot to look forward to in the months before the 2003 season was to open.

The Rams had won the program’s first Class A state team title in 2002 and ended last spring with a 16-0 record. They had one of the top singles players in the state in Bryan Brown, who was just a freshman. Rick Ylagan, who had coached Bangor since 1997, was excited for the season to start.

But the Rams certainly didn’t expect to take the road they did to get to this point in the season.

About 21/2 months before the boys opened practice, Ylagan, 39, died in his sleep, apparently of natural causes.

Senior co-captains Ryan Saucier (second singles) and Corey Mallonee (third singles) took on the responsibility of keeping the team together in the wake of Ylagan’s death. The two got the group together often.

“We wanted to get team unity going, because it was really tough,” Saucier said. “We knew we were going to have a pretty strong team this year and [Ylagan] did too, and he wanted it bad to get back there this year. It’s for a bigger and better reason now, to win states.”

Bangor has a shot at defending its state crown. The Rams finishing another strong regular season with a 12-0 record and the No. 4 seed for the Eastern Maine Class A playoffs.

Bangor hosts No. 5 Waterville (9-3) Wednesday in a quarterfinal.

About one week before the season opened the Rams learned who their new coach would be: Cindy Howard, who served as the Bangor girls swimming coach and guided that team to a second-place finish at the Class A state championships.

“To be honest, we were kind of worried at the start of the season because we had no idea what was going to happen,” Mallonee said. “But it seems to have worked out pretty well.”

Once the coaching situation was settled, there was the matter of replacing graduated players like Kyle Cutshall, the No. 2 singles player, and Jeremy Yardley, who played at third singles. Saucier, who was a second doubles player last year, and fill-in Mallonee, who played some doubles last year, stepped into those roles. Mallonee is undefeated this season.

Bangor’s first singles team is made up of Nate Cutshall and Brian Tomassitti. Cam Webb and Steve Pasquine are the second doubles team.

The Rams had one big advantage going into the season – Bryan Brown.

Brown, whose upset win over Deering of Portland’s top singles player in last year’s state championship sealed his reputation, has gotten even better.

Saucier and Mallonee worked in the offseason and harbored hopes of giving Brown a challenge.

“We come back, and he’s about 10 times better than we’ll ever be,” Saucier said with a smile. “But that helps us out. Getting spanked around in practice also makes us better players. He’s a really good teacher and he knows a lot about tennis.”