Following an 8-3 season that concluded with a 26-20 victory over Archbishop Spalding to claim the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference title, St. Mary's coach Mike Clay was let go and replaced with Brad Best.

Best, who compiled a 59-41 record and three conference championships over a 10-year career at St. Mary's from 1989-99, was given the interim label and is looking to take a new class of players back to the title game.

"Teams are going to play harder against them because they won it last year," Best said. "Each team has its own identity. The seniors last year obviously want to do better this year. … This is a new team."

Best returns a pair of weapons to the field in wide receiver Mark McNeill and running back Neil Lewnes.

McNeill, a Capital-Gazette Newspapers' All-County selection last year as a sophomore, brought down 43 receptions for 911 yards and 11 touchdowns - proving to be quarterback Peter Athens' favorite target.

"He is tremendous," Best said. "He's 6-foot-4, 225, and he's very fast. He's a good basketball player, and he's a great lacrosse player. He has a tremendous attitude - won't take a break. He'll always jump into drills. He's a hard worker, encouraging the player."

Best said he's going to try to take advantage of McNeill's athleticism and include him in reverses. McNeill will also see time on defense because he covers so much ground.

Lewnes will replace Dontra Peters, who is playing for New Hampshire, as the primary ball carrier. He ran for 425 yards and five touchdowns on 61 carries last season.

Athens, meanwhile, transferred to Huntingtown, which leaves a hole at quarterback. Trey Quinn and Ryan Hart, a transfer from Archbishop Spalding, are vying for the starting nod, which Best said likely will be a game-time decision prior to St. Mary's season-opener Saturday against Gilman.

"It's been good because they've been pushing each other and helping each other, too," Best said. "This is a very close-knit team. They pull for each other."

The Cavaliers are waiting for redemption. After topping the Saints, 21-19, in the regular season, Archbishop

Spalding took a three-game winning streak into the B Conference finals only to walk away without a championship for the first time in three seasons.

"All our guys expect to be there again," Cavaliers coach Mike Whittles said. "Our goal, frankly, is to win it."

Like St. Mary's, the quarterback spot could be a battle all season. With Kevin Moran graduated, his younger brother, Mike, and Nick Polcak have been competing for the last two weeks.

"Right now, they're even," Whittles said. "We're going to find out a little more this week."

The Cavaliers have experience on both lines, and Nick Whittles and Nick Kuhl figure to benefit the most. Whittles rushed for 750 yards and three touchdowns on 162 carries in the Cavaliers' 7-4 campaign in 2007.

Whittles said the conference is the most competitive he's seen it in a while. St. Paul's ended Spalding's 16-game conference win streak with a 26-25 overtime defeat last season, and Whittles is expecting Archbishop Curley, St. Paul's, Boys' Latin and St. Mary's to be at the top of their games.

"Anybody can beat anybody," Whittles said. "Everybody wants to beat us because we've been the team to beat. … Everybody's coming for us, and it wasn't always that way."

Severn will be among those looking to knock off Archbishop Spalding and St. Mary's.

The Admirals, 3-7 last year, have Jon Gren returning at quarterback to lead the offense. Injured in the beginning of the season, Gren worked his way back into action near the end and finished with 14 completions for 256 yards and three touchdowns.

"He's got great athleticism, senior leadership, and he's football savvy," Severn coach Tony Werner said. "We have some good people on the edge, who we can get the ball to down the field."

Adam Cohen, Noah Pyles and Stevie Kirkup will get most of the carries at running back, and receivers Alex Jones and Chris Edgar will make sure Glen gets plenty of work.

Werner's excited about his offensive line, which includes four-year starter Jeremy Holbrook and three-year starter Brad Kennedy.

"We're optimistic, obviously," he said. "We have a great 11 that we feel can play with anyone. We're really excited about what we have coming back."

So is Annapolis Area Christian School coach Ken Lucas.

A year ago, Lucas was putting together a new program, loaded with 21 kids who had never played football before. Now, those inexperienced numbers are fewer, and the energy is up.

"There's a lot of times when we look at tape where we're looking further along than we were last year just in the number of kids with experience," Lucas said. "We're able to move along a little bit faster in the terms of teaching the game."

The Eagles finished 1-7 last year, with their lone win a 21-20 mark against Friends on Oct. 19. But they were shut out four times last season and held to eight or fewer points six times.

Freshman quarterback Chris Chick edged out Mike Wayne, who started last year. Wayne will move to the special teams and likely take another spot on offense and possibly defense.

"(Chick's) got playing experience. There's a lot to be said about that," Lucas said. "You can see he's a young man who has played the position before. Certainly he has areas where he struggles, but you can see, in practice, that he has areas where he's done before."

No coach is particularly comfortable right now. Whittles was feeling the butterflies in his stomach as of Monday, and that feeling will likely only grow as the season progresses.

"The conference is always pretty tight," Best said. "You have the teams who are traditionally strong, but you have some teams that are down one year and back the next year. You take it one game at a time, and you can't take anyone lightly."